computing and power toy-ing

About 6 weeks ago, I bought a new computer. Not the computer I have been building on mac.com (the $10,000 beast that will one day be the best editing system EVER), but a $350 compaq desktop.

Most of you know that my main computer, god bless her, has started failing me after just about 7 years of awesomeness. I am lucky she made it this long. Well, as most of you also know I have been broke for quite some time. But, I need a computer to work. And to do homework. And to check my email. And to play Neopets (it's a joke! seriously! kind of...).

So, over President's Day there were many a sale to check out. Costco. Staples. Wal-Mart.
Target. Best Buy. Office Depot. I looked at every computer at every location and after about a week, I decided the best deal was at Staples. I got a Compaq Presario desktop with 250 GB of hard drive space, 1GB ram (eh.), and a DVD burner/lightscribe labeler. It also came with a free flat panel and a free printer. Woohoo.

sidenote: With the ten grand that I plan on one day using to buy that sweet mac, I could buy 25 of these little guys. Yikes.

Anyhow I digress. My new computer runs on Windows Vista Premium. And despite my previous, unjustified negativity, Joe convinced me that Vista rocks. So, I decided to let it rock. And it has, it has rocked flawlessly. But as always, with time I find can find something wrong with anything. I am very picky. So, here is my only complaint to date: a couple of my absolute, essential-to-my-being programs/utilities do not work with Vista.

This was fairly obvious to begin with, not all programs/utilities/power toys will be compatible with Windows Vista. I knew this. I did my research. But, when I finally got around to trying to install my favorites, no dice. I thought I was on a roll because every single program I moved over worked great, but not these little guys:

Image Resizer Powertoy
Screen Print 32

(anyone using XP who doesn't have them... click those linkies!)

Anyhow, after I dealt with the initial sadness, I decided to do a little research on finding some replacements. So far here is what I have for a Vista image resizer:

VSO Image Resizer

I found this one worked pretty well, not as simplified as what I am used to. It has two annoying pop-ups that come up each time you use it unless you buy the corporate version or whatever. If you can handle that then it rocks, otherwise if you're like me it will annoy the shit out of you.

Prish Resizer
(Brittany will love the photo captions on the main image)
I have not tried this one...

Fotosizer
...Or this one. Yet.

As far as the screen print situation, I am working on that as well. I have found a few alternatives that are Vista compatible but I haven't tried them yet. It's kind of because screen shots of them don't look very, um, pretty. I will admit it, I am shallow. Even with computer programs. Unless it's extremely basic, it better be pretty to look at. I don't like all these stupid looking programs sitting on my computer. So, as soon as I find a halfway decent looking interface, I will give it a test drive and get back to you.

Yes, I am aware of the alternative. I know you can just hit the "prt scr" button on your keyboard and then open paint or photoshop and paste it in, but that's just too much trouble when I am used to clicking "alt-f12" and having it appear instantly on my desktop. I like it even more simple than that... dang!

I did find one interesting program that I will check out one day when I am not so tired, it's a similar program for Vista.

Also, here are a couple of power toys that I found and haven't tried, but thought looked neat. You know, just in case for some odd reason you feel like trying them out.