Shirish Ranjit

Microsoft released their much anticipated operation system software Vista. After years of delay, Microsoft has shipped Vista to its business customers and soon to be released to its consumers. Vista suppose to be Microsoft’s most advanced operating system, or is it that advanced? Lets take a look at some reviews.

Mike Elgan in his blog at (http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=655&blogid=4) made six major points on Vista. They are:

• Vista is incomplete
• Vista is expensive
• Vista wants a new PC
• Vista is time-consuming
• Windows XP isn’t obsolete
• Vista may be the best reason yet to buy a Mac

First point, we can infer from Microsoft’s history of releasing software that Vista is not stable as XP. Though it has taken many years to build Vista, as Mike mentioned not many hardware and also software are ready for the prime time yet.

Second point is that Vista is priced very high in the era of free and open source software. It is so high that you can buy Mac Mini for that price.

Besides price point, third point is that Vista requires a new computer. It will not run on your old computer if you want to take all the features that Vista provides. This makes you think, is Microsoft tacitly supporting Linux (free and open source) operating system? Linux is going to work on all old hardware. Linux had been have been building device drivers for years to support many different hardware vendors.

The forth point is that Vista is time-consuming to install and upgrade. Users require learning new operation system. If thats so, Linux looking much cheaper solution.

I have been using Windows 2000 and XP. I think they have developed to the point both operating systems are stable. I have spent numerous hours working with those two system to work for me. I am not sure I need a new software that I need to spend a lot of time to be productive. So, why should I upgrade when XP is working well.

The sixth point sums up the first five. If it is so expensive to upgrade and use, why not just get Mac when they have the OS that Microsoft has just released for number of years. There are many reviews that just points that Vista is almost clone to Mac OS X operating system.

Following are some interesting publications on Vista.

Kin Mingis installs vista on his mac and writes about his experience. His experience is that Vista is very similar to Mac OS X. His point is that Mac OS X has been around for a number of years, thus this is not a break through in interface design.

http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/09/27/vistavsmac/index.php?lsrc=mwrss

This blog compares Mac OS X with Windows Vista with screen shots. The screen shots looks really similar. Where is the imagination of Microsoft genius’.

http://lifehacker.com/software/top/windows-vista-beta-a-lot-like-mac-os-x-179909.php

This is a review on Vista. “Has any OS been so maligned and so praised during a painfully long development cycle as Windows Vista? The march to Vista’s launch has sometimes seemed longer than the Hundred Years War.”

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=8149

A brief introduction on Vista.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128404-c,vistalonghorn/article.html

A detail article on Vista in New York Times. You need to have subscription to read it though.

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00713F93D550C748CDDAB0994DE404482

Some hardware vendors giving away coups for Vista, check the following site

http://cnet.nytimes.com/4532-10921_7-0.html?keywords=Laptops

Tim Allix’s title of his article “Solution: Go buy a Mac”

http://www.whistlerquestion.com/madison%5CWQuestion.nsf/0/267842D9E62D77A78825726E006A458E?OpenDocument

Google News on Vista

http://news.google.com/news?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&channel=s&tab=wn&q=vista&scoring=d

Shirish Ranjit

Microsoft released their much anticipated operation system software Vista. After years of delay, Microsoft has shipped Vista to its business customers and soon to be released to its consumers. Vista suppose to be Microsoft’s most advanced operating system, or is it that advanced? Lets take a look at some reviews.

Mike Elgan in his blog at (http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=655&blogid=4) made six major points on Vista. They are:

• Vista is incomplete
• Vista is expensive
• Vista wants a new PC
• Vista is time-consuming
• Windows XP isn’t obsolete
• Vista may be the best reason yet to buy a Mac

First point, we can infer from Microsoft’s history of releasing software that Vista is not stable as XP. Though it has taken many years to build Vista, as Mike mentioned not many hardware and also software are ready for the prime time yet.

Second point is that Vista is priced very high in the era of free and open source software. It is so high that you can buy Mac Mini for that price.

Besides price point, third point is that Vista requires a new computer. It will not run on your old computer if you want to take all the features that Vista provides. This makes you think, is Microsoft tacitly supporting Linux (free and open source) operating system? Linux is going to work on all old hardware. Linux had been have been building device drivers for years to support many different hardware vendors.

The forth point is that Vista is time-consuming to install and upgrade. Users require learning new operation system. If thats so, Linux looking much cheaper solution.

I have been using Windows 2000 and XP. I think they have developed to the point both operating systems are stable. I have spent numerous hours working with those two system to work for me. I am not sure I need a new software that I need to spend a lot of time to be productive. So, why should I upgrade when XP is working well.

The sixth point sums up the first five. If it is so expensive to upgrade and use, why not just get Mac when they have the OS that Microsoft has just released for number of years. There are many reviews that just points that Vista is almost clone to Mac OS X operating system.

Following are some interesting publications on Vista.

Kin Mingis installs vista on his mac and writes about his experience. His experience is that Vista is very similar to Mac OS X. His point is that Mac OS X has been around for a number of years, thus this is not a break through in interface design.

http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/09/27/vistavsmac/index.php?lsrc=mwrss

This blog compares Mac OS X with Windows Vista with screen shots. The screen shots looks really similar. Where is the imagination of Microsoft genius’.

http://lifehacker.com/software/top/windows-vista-beta-a-lot-like-mac-os-x-179909.php

This is a review on Vista. “Has any OS been so maligned and so praised during a painfully long development cycle as Windows Vista? The march to Vista’s launch has sometimes seemed longer than the Hundred Years War.”

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=8149

A brief introduction on Vista.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128404-c,vistalonghorn/article.html

A detail article on Vista in New York Times. You need to have subscription to read it though.

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00713F93D550C748CDDAB0994DE404482

Some hardware vendors giving away coups for Vista, check the following site

http://cnet.nytimes.com/4532-10921_7-0.html?keywords=Laptops

Tim Allix’s title of his article “Solution: Go buy a Mac”

http://www.whistlerquestion.com/madison%5CWQuestion.nsf/0/267842D9E62D77A78825726E006A458E?OpenDocument

Google News on Vista

http://news.google.com/news?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&channel=s&tab=wn&q=vista&scoring=d

This the page on the baby nursing

Breastfeeding Experience

By Jarina Shrestha

Breast feeding is an ideal nature’s system and the ideal food for a baby. Only mother is able to nourish baby at the breast. It is as much better and less expensive than the formula.

I read books and watched videos on the breastfeeding before my daughter was born. I thought that this would prepare me enough to breast feed easily but it was not as easy at the start as I thought. Breast feeding needs lot of patience and commitment. My husband and I knew that we need to put the baby on the breast as soon as after born. But we were so excited and watching her activities and completely forgot about that. After a couple of hours of delivery, babies go to deep sleep making it harder to feed.

I could not breast feed her at all for first couple of days. She was not latching on the breast. But I didn’t give up. I kept trying to put her in the breast. Even she was not on the breast, I was expressing breast milk to maintain milk supply; and we feed her the milk that we collected from breast expression. We finger fed her so that she can learn to latch on the breast. To make sure that our baby breast feeds, we avoided bottle all together for at least six weeks.

At first breast feeding was so difficult that I felt extremely depressed because I was not able to feed my child. After a couple of weeks persistently trying to breast feed, the baby along with finger feeding started to latch on to the breast. Because she was still not latching properly, my nipple got damaged. It took patience, persistence and support from my husband and the family for the baby to latch on properly from the seventh week.

Breastfeeding has been a wonderful experience for me. Breast feeding is not only feeding the baby, but also brought me close to my baby. I want everybody to know that breastfeeding exclusively is great. It is a great investment of time and commitment that will pay high rewards for both mother and baby. I would recommend that if you can breastfeed, do it. It is definitely worthy.

Also published in www.kathmandumetro.com issue 03 – 2006

Breastfeeding: My experience-II

By Jarina Shrestha

It was an amazing experience how milk supply works. I heard about women unable to nourish baby due to lack of adequate milk supply. I was worried that I would not be able to supply enough milk for my baby. I learnt from the books and classes I had taken about breastfeeding that breast milk is basically demand and supply. The more you feed your baby, the more milk you produce. In the beginning, I thought that I was not producing enough milk. I was constantly watching my daughter’s wet and poop diaper to make sure that she was getting enough milk. Also, I was feeding her frequently and expressing milk after each feeding to increase milk supply.

I have heard people saying to eat this and that to increase milk supply. But my experience was defiantly balanced diet is necessary for nursing mother to increase the milk supply. You also need to stimulate your brain, which happens from baby’s sucking or expressing milk to make more milk.

The first few weeks after giving birth were a critical time for establishing the milk supply. My daughter was not latching properly. During that time, I frequently empted the breasts to maintain the milk supply, this set and controlled the level of milk production. I knew that the milk supply can rapidly drop if the baby is not sucking properly or is not latched on well to stimulate the milk production process. I was frequently feeding my baby even at night. I didn’t give a bottle to my baby even at night because it often leads to a low milk supply. Because of my husband and family members’ great help, I was getting enough rest during the day and good nutrition, so I was able to breast feed at night, which helped me to maintain my milk supply.

The breasts work on the law of supply and demand. The more baby “tells” mother’s breasts to make milk, the more milk she will have. By allowing your baby to nurse more frequently for a few days, your body will receive the message that more milk is needed for your growing baby. Once your supply has increased, your baby will usually return to his/her usual routine.

Also published in www.kathmandumetro.com issue 02 – 2007

Our experience in parenting.