Month: February 2009

Posted on

Considering Windows 7

I’ve had a love-hate (more like, “moderately friendly/utterly despise”) relationship with Microsoft since about DOS 4 (known to some of us as DOG 4), and even in the halcyon times of Windows 3.X, I preferred running those drafty Windows versions on top of IBM’s PCDOS or Novell DOS.

I suffered through the cranky, creaky, crappy Windows 95, the almost good Windows 98 (and the “quite acceptable for most uses” 98SE… with some appropriate thefts from–> ), passed on the Muppet Edition, found NT4 useful and Win2K to be Just Right (for most things), never warmed much to XP and was appalled at the truly bad decisions that brought out the bloated resource hog, Vista.

In spite of my gripes, I’ve found Ubuntu 8.04/8.10 to be better overall than most Microsoft OS offerings, for most things (still sucks dead bunnies through a straw for midi creation).

But the rumbles going on about Windows 7 intrigue me. Seriously. I meant to install and evaluate the beta in January, but things just got in the way. I’m way off schedule on things, already, for February, but I hope to get to taking a serious look at Windows 7 this month. For one thing, this caught my eye:

…Windows 7, unlike Vista, has a small footprint and is not a resources glutton. I know this to be a fact because I have the beta version running on my Eee PC and it works fine – and it’s just a beta!

Intriguing. Me$$y$oft publish unbloated code? Could be a Very Good Thing. Since I’m considering a netbook purchase this year for myself, this could be a Very Very Good Thing indeed. And my Wonder Woman would probably appreciate some sort of Windows on the HTPC I might install this year, so if Windows 7 is at all acceptable, it could well be a candidate for that PC.

Even if I do make such a move though, it’d still leave three or more ‘nix boxes on our lil network–and maybe more, since I know an old Compaq (seriously spiffed up hardwarewise) will be going online this month with PCBSD, and when Son&Heir gets his softmods done on his old XBox, that’ll be another.

But the early reports on Windows 7 bode well for a new computer or two here at twc central using the OS. If it really pans out like the early press indicates.

UPDATE: *heh* This guy claims to have installed Windows 7 on a 600Mhz box w/only 512MB of RAM. If so–and the video of him doing it is compelling!–I have a few computers to try the 32-bit version on just sitting around unused. Need a DVD drive for ’em, though (yeh, they’re that old).

Update#2: Oh, heck, why not. *heh* Since I removed the “personal media drive” connectors and backplate, I have two more ready-made places (one in the bottom of the case) for SATA drives–and three open SATA connections on the MOBO. In addition, since I probably will remove the DVDROM drive from this computer for the old comp I’ve singled out to try the 32-bit Win7 on, I can install another drive–either SATA or IDE, in that bay, cover the bay opening and bob’s your uncle. While I seriously doubt I’ll add three more drives to this rig, I could, so even though I dislike the idea, I could easily do a dual boot of Win7 (64-bit) and Ubuntu 8.10 (64-bit)… and I might do just that.

Trackposted to The Pink Flamingo, Faultline USA, Democrat=Socialist, Walls of the City, The World According to Carl, and DragonLady’s World, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Posted on

Groundhog Day

While the Emperor tries on yet another set of new clothes today, the Repugnican’ts, who’ve, among other recent egregious sins, proffered their own approval of a fox to rule the henhouse to please His Royal Haughtiness, look ready to continue to bend over backwards while straddling a fence , the Earth mocks The Goracle while seemingly readying for Fimbulwinter1 and the Little Foxes2 lay their plans to spoil the vinyard.

Can it be that the groundhog won’t even emerge to view its shadow today? If he’s half as smart as a head of cabbage, Mr. Groundhog will curl up in his den and dream of being the Rip Van Winkle of the animal kingdom.

THIS is an open trackbacks post. Link to THIS post and track back. 🙂

If you have a linkfest/open trackback post to promote OR if you simply want to promote a post via the linkfests/open trackback posts others are offering, GO TO LINKFEST HAVEN DELUXE! Just CLICK the link above or the graphic immediately below.

Linkfest Haven, the Blogger's Oasis

Posted on

Why I Didn’t Answer Your Email

It was lost in a sewer backup, according to eWeek’s report on a Panda Security finding.

…according to a new study issued by researchers at AV specialists Panda, the astonishing amounts of spam and malware attacks that arrive at companies electronic doorsteps each day is shockingly over 90 percent.

Yes, that’s right, according to Panda’s survey of 430 million e-mail messages received by its customers during the last year, only 8.4 percent were legitimate.

So, while you may or may not have missed an email from me because of toxic sludge clogging your inbox, I imagine a lot of email is lost in this clutter, no matter how–or perhaps because–email server admins may labor to block SPAM. How much legitimate email is accidentally blocked by legitimate attempts to block spam we may never know. It’s part of the price we pay for not being civilized enough to track spammers down and burn them alive, sell their children into slavery and eradicate their names from the face of the earth. Instead, we all pay the price of our limp-wristed approach to this evil scum.

Oh. Well. You’ll never know if I missed your email because I filter my accounts through my hosting service’s spam blocker, or if I simply ignored it (surely not!)… or if my answer was filtered by YOUR spam filtration. *heh* All I know is that my inbox is now down to a few spam emails a week, where once I was receiving 1,000s. Since I don’t have the cojones to track spammers down, burn them alive, etc., I guess I will just have to live with that.

Trackposted to Nuke’s, Political Byline, Faultline USA, The World According to Carl, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, Leaning Straight Up, and Democrat=Socialist, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.