Anyway, when Vista was announced, I was stoked. Finally, I can now have a cool desktop like my brother’s Mac. But then, oh no, Vista is a giant nightmare. All I really wanted was the “Sidebar” that Vista was rolling out. I then found that Google had one that you could install on winXP, but quickly was disappointed as it is a big clunky thing. My brother’s MAC was still cooler. Sound like I am whining?

But, alas, check out Yahoo! Widgets. I love them. Cool little add ins that you can install that “float” on your desktop. So, I can rearrange them, however I want. I can customize the look and feel. Some have been developed by Yahoo and some by whoever. So, obviously, there is a big risk that they will not work or have limited functionality. But some are really cool and let you change colors etc.

Check out a portion of my desktop above. There are literally scores of different things you can have. I stuck with the basics: clocks for the various time zones I work in, a calendar with a preview of events from Outlook, local weather and an XM radio player.

Each has odd little quirks like, “bleeding” through both Pro/engineer and SolidWorks? If you maximize both CAD systems, the odd behavior goes away. So, as long as I know how to fix it, I am good with it.

When Google burst onto the scene, I felt bad for Yahoo! As you have seen in other posts, I am becoming a loyal fan.