The Parental Controls panel in Windows Vista provides a set of controls for every aspect of your child’s computer use, such as.....

Time limits for computer use

You can decide when your children are allowed, or not allowed, to use the computer. You are presented with a grid showing the days of the week and the hours of the day to restrict their computer use, you simply click on the specific times and days that you want to block. As a child nears the end of an approved time period, he receives a 10-minute and a 1-minute notification that their time is about to expire. If their time ends before he logs off the computer, Windows Vista suspends his session and displays the login and their session stays active in the background.

Computer game restrictions

Parents can decide which computer games their children are allowed to play. You might decide to allow your child to play all games deemed appropriate for a certain age level by one of the game ratings boards. (Windows Vista supports all of the major international ratings boards that are currently active.) You also have the option of refining your choices by allowing or disallowing specific game titles and various types of game content. This enables you to make decisions about games that are unrated.  

Activity reports

Monitoring your children’s computer behaviour not only makes it easy for you to keep track of what they are seeing, hearing, and doing, but it also enables you to refine and modify parental controls based on actual feedback. For your children, a padlock icon in the system tray is always visible to let them know that the Parental Controls feature is on.

Application restrictions

Windows Vista allows you to decide which programs, or applications, your child is allowed to use. When you click the Block Specific Programs button in the Parental Controls panel, it calls up a list of installed programs. You can either choose to allow your child to use all programs or approve only certain programs that you feel are appropriate. You can also add a program to the list at any time and then approve it for your child’s use.

Web restrictions

Windows Vista comes with a built-in Web Content Filter, which can examine content on various webpages and provide parents with information they need to make informed decisions about the limits they want to place on their children’s web browsing. It works with most major browsers, not just Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Wildlife is my favourite photographic subject and IMHO you can prepare in advance even though your subjects can be unpredictable. You can have the most expensive camera equipment available but unless you know how to use it and know what makes a good photograph you may as well be using a point and shoot, but I am not belittling point and shoot cameras because again if you know the camera and can compose the shot you can get some stunning results, in fact I carry mine with me when its not practical to have my DSLR. So apart from knowing your camera you should also research the location so you know the type of wildlife you will encounter and the environment you will be shooting in. Before reaching our location have your camera ready by having the right type of lens attached to your camera along with the the correct settings. I usually shoot on aperture priority mode and have my Nikkor 80-400mm set on f8, this allows me to ready to capture any fleeting moments. Obviously with more time you can adjust the settings according to the type of shot you want. You can also prepare in advance for the type of shot you want, by this I mean from your research you can decide what you want to capture such as a close up shot for detail or the environment or you might want both. I usually try to visulise the type of shot I want and this certainly helps me. So practicing what I preach I’ve being doing some research on the three main areas I will be visiting on my short safari and my first stop will be at Lake Manyara, which has many hundreds of bird species including great numbers of flamingos also this area is famous for tree climbing lions. So personally I will be looking to capture mainly environmental shots of the wildlife as well as silhouette shots with sun setting behind the animals. Next on the list will be the Serengeti which is famouse for all the big cats, so my aim here will to capture close up detailed shots. Finally I will be will be visiting the Ngorongoro crater and here will be a combination stunning scenic shots and close ups to capture the details of the resident Lions, Hyenas Wildebeest, elephants and if lucky the black Rhino. That’s the plan anyway and I'll let you know how I get on in the coming weeks. So what’s the almost? Well if I new that, I could prepare for it, there is always the unexpected that nearly moment.

Adding RAM is often the best way to improve a PC’s performance, since more memory means more applications are ready to run without accessing the hard drive. While RAM is fairly cheap these days, upgrading memory can be difficult as some machines have limited memory expansion capabilities. Windows Vista introduces Windows ReadyBoost™, a new concept in adding memory to a system. You can use USB 2 flash drives >256mb to extend system memory and improve performance without having to add additional memory “under the hood.” The USB device serves as additional memory cache—memory that the computer can access much more quickly than it can access data on the hard drive. Windows ReadyBoost technology is both reliable and secure. You can remove the memory device at any time while using Windows ReadyBoost without any loss of data or negative impact to the system; however, when the storage device is removed, performance returns to the level experienced without the device. Wear on a USB drive is not an issue when you use it to enhance performance—a unique algorithm optimizes wear patterns so the USB device can run in this capacity for many years, even when heavily used. Finally, data on the storage device is encrypted to prevent inappropriate access.

Then check out the Voodoo Gadget for the Windows Vista SideBar. What are Gadgets? Well these are mini-applications with a wide variety of possible uses. Gadgets can connect to web services to deliver weather information, news updates, traffic maps, Internet radio streams, slide shows of online photo albums or just be fun. Windows Vista comes with an essential set of gadgets to get you started and you can easily download more gadgets from the online gadget gallery.

We’ve all had an OH NO moment when working on a document and have accidently overwritten, deleted, or failed to save the file.  Well if you use either Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate editions you will be able to take advantage of a feature called Previous Versions, which automatically creates daily “restore points” that capture older versions of your files as you work, so when that OH NO moment happens you can quickly and easily retrieve previous versions of a document regardless of where on the disk they are located - even if you have never backed up your files. The Previous Versions features uses the Volume Shadow Copy technology first introduced in Windows Server 2003. This powerful and performance-optimized technology has protected millions of documents on Windows file servers and is now available to help protect the files stored on your PC as well.

You can access a previous version of a file by right-clicking on the filename and selecting Previous Versions and this feature only takes the bare minimum of disk space because changes are tracked at the physical, or “block,” level. If only a small part of a file changes (such as a slide in a presentation), only that portion of the file is saved rather than the entire file. A set amount of disk space is used for storing the previous versions, and Windows Vista automatically “ages out” older versions of files to make room for newer ones. You can configure this setting at the volume level by using the System control panel’s System Protection screen, which also governs the System Restore feature. You can typically access about one month’s worth of previous versions for your files.

Well it’s only a couple of weeks until I set off on Safari and I’ve almost sorted everything. I got my visa last week. I’ve had all the required jabs & got the malaria tablets, but was surprised by the cost over £120 in total I thought we had the NHS in the UK! Anyway on a different note I have been trying to purchase Nikons 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX Zoom, but trying to get one in the UK is just a nightmare. I placed an order with one well known supplier 3 months ago, I contacted them again this week to see when the order would be fulfilled and was told with their current back orders and shipments from Nikon, it could take another 6 months. So I took the plunge and order one on eBay from Hong Kong and received it in 4 days and am very happy with my purchase. I have also decided to take my 2 year old Sony TX laptop as its small and light and it runs well with Windows Vista Ultimate RC2, I don’t get the Aero interface as there are no WDDM drivers for the Intel graphics chipset, but do get everything else.  I am also taking my 80gb LaCie Rugged Hard Drive to back up all my photos.

Windows Vista Aero offers a premium user experience that makes it easier to visualize and work with your information and offers a smoother, more stable desktop experience. Key features in Windows Vista Aero include the following.

Smoother-performing desktop.
When you use Aero, open windows glide across your screen when you move or resize them. You’ll see no redraw artifacts, latency, or “tearing” effects that sometimes appear on existing computers, particularly in windows that display dynamic content such as video. The Aero experience also reduces graphics driver–related system crashes and blue screens.  

Glass.
Aero features windows that are truly translucent. This “glass” effect allows you to more easily focus on the content of a window, while providing better context for the surrounding elements on your desktop. For added personalization, you can change the color, the saturation, and even the level of transparency, to get exactly the look and feel you want.

Dynamic windows.
When minimized, a window will subtly animate to a specific location on the taskbar, making it easier to locate when you need it later.

Live taskbar thumbnails.
With Windows Vista Aero, live taskbar thumbnails show you the contents of the windows that are currently open or minimized to the taskbar. When you pause your mouse pointer over a tile on the taskbar, you see the “live” contents of the corresponding window without having to bring that window to the foreground.

Windows Flip (Alt+Tab).
Windows Flip is an update to the feature known as Alt+Tab in previous versions of Windows. Windows Flip shows you live thumbnails of your open windows instead of generic icons, making it easier to quickly identify the windows you’re looking for. One of the displayed windows in the Flip experience will always be on your desktop, giving you a fast and simple way to instantly minimize all the open windows on your desktop.Windows Flip 3D. Flip 3D gives you a new way to find the window you want. When you press the Start+Tab keys, Flip 3D dynamically displays all the open windows on your desktop in a 3D, stacked view. In this view, you can rotate through your open windows to find the right one. Flip 3D can even show live processes such as playing video. You can also use the arrow keys, or the scroll wheel on your mouse, to smoothly flip through the open windows and select the window you need.

Great news! Future Publishing put their preview issue of Windows Vista Magazine, on sale 1^st November. I’ve manage to get a sneak preview and it's absolutely packed with everything you need to know about Windows Vista. Inside the mag, you'll find in-depth guides to help you buy the perfect Windows Vista ready PC -- whether it's a desktop or a laptop you're after -- as well as the information you need to know about upgrading your existing PC so it runs Windows Vista at its best.

So it’s been a while since I posted anything as I have had my head down working on the general availability launch in January, but I did manage to install RC1 a couple of weeks ago & this week move to RC2, well all I can say these builds are night & day from where we were with Beta 2, all the functionality is enabled and the OS does not hang and performance is greatly improved. I am now using RC2 on my production machine, yes I do have a couple issue with drivers but that is to be expected until the OEM’s release their updates but nothing that can’t be worked around. IMHO if anyone wanted to use Windows Vista today, they would be able to do so.