Vista, Pt 2

I know I promised a post on what I didn't like about Vista, but, as it terns out... I like everything about Vista! It is the most incredible product ever to be sold to the American consumer. Dare I say-- It shall be bigger than cigarettes, its so good!

Bottom line. After about a week, I see absolutely nothing new about Vista, accept the flippy-flippy window list thing. And of course, there's the blue screens, but I can live with them. They are self inflicted injuries. The price you pay for being an early adopter.

Granted, Vista has introduced new features, like the gadget sidebar. After all, I really need a second clock on my desktop. Can't trust the clock on my palm, in it's cradle beside my computer. Can't trust the clock on my Sprint phone, in it's cradle beside my computer. Can't trust the one on my NTP synchonized Fedora system, on my desk, beside my computer.

Now come time to start loading software to see what all doesn't work.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Started driving home when I heard a funny sound: Whop, whop, whop...

Uh oh-- Flat tire!

Not quite, I'd picked up what Firestone calls a road hazard, but the true technical term is big ass screw in the tire. I didn't figure I'd survive the beltway if the tire blew, so I pulled over and tossed on the spare. Look at that thing! It looks like it came off Malibu Barbie's convertible.

Then I took off the Protenza G009, I had about an inch of clearance between the rubber and the asphalt. When I put on this thing, I had to lower the car four inches before it even touched the ground. And it's like two inches wide.

But, I shouldn't complain... It got me home.

Windows Vista: Things I Like

My HP came with a free upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium (when available). After sitting on my desk for the last several months, I finally got it loaded. Lets start with the good:

* Remember network passwords - Great for my Samba server.
* Free space meters - Displayed next to the drives.
* Upgrade to Solitare - It's about time.
* Upgrade to Minesweeper - Now with sound!
* Mahjong - One less thing to download.
* Album Art - Fetched the images and saved them on the server.

Perhaps more to come, but the next post will be Things I Don't Like!

Windows Vista Upgrade

Haven't seem one of these in a while.

After four days of backup and preparation, I got Vista loaded. Actually, I wiped the system, recovered to HP's base image, stripped out the HP supplied malware, then upgraded from there. If I had done the upgrade, start to finish, it would have take four hours.

I booted Vista for the first time, played with it for thirty minutes, then went to the gym. When I got home, I woke up the box, to be greated by a BSOD. I've not seen a blue screen in years! (Of course, I principally use Linux / Redhat / Unix / Solaris.) On recovery I was met by this happy little fellow.

This should be fun!

Best Looking Truck of the Evening

No reason for the picture of the zebra on the back of this truck, but it was a very pretty zebra.

See Through Windows!

Passed this truck on the morning commute. Picture didn't post as nice as I'd hoped, but on the back door, they are bragging that they sell See Through Windows.

Brilliant!

I do have to admit, however, that they are better than the windows in the old SAC facilities I supported in the early 1980's. The facilities would be mostly underground, so they would hang these large starving artist type paintings, and but curtains around them. At first I thought that was stupid, but then I had to pull an overnight duty at a B-52 alert station. My room mate said he couldn't sleep with the window open, so he close the curtains.

Now, I've never been a morning person. And with the lights out, this place was black as pitch. When the alarm went off, I staggered to to wall switch, and was immediately blinded by the florecent light. My room mate asked "Is it still raining?"

"Hold on," I offered, as I walked across the room. "Let me look outside." I pulled the curtains apart, and found myself staring at painting of the ocean.

Good thing he was too groggy to notice.

L2S: Process List

When you do a process list on Linux, you get the process in age order. I don't know how Solaris is ordering them. Here's the closest solution so far:

Linux: ps -ef
Solaris: ps -ef | sort -n +2

No Video For You

Here's an experiment that didn't work. The idea was to post video from my phone to the blog. No go. We got the preview image, but no video. Too bad.

Independance Day, Baltimore Inner Harbor, Pt4

Horrible, horrible, rain. Heavy winds. Fireworks starts in 20 minutes, but its just too bad to stay. So sad.

Independance Day, Baltimore Inner Harbor, Pt3

The black thing in the middle of the harbor is the launch platform. This means any point along the shore will have a good view.