So Windows 7 was officially released on Thursday.
I wasn’t sure, initially, if I was going to buy it, at least not right away.
However, when I bought my new laptop back around the end of June – did I ever mention that I bought a new laptop? I don’t think I did. In any case, I bought a new laptop back in June. – I bought it during the period in which buying a new computer would qualify you for a free Windows 7 upgrade once it was released.
Because it was free, I figured I might as well upgrade the laptop, so Wednesday night I filled out the online order form for it, with no idea when I’ll actually get the DVD in the mail.
On Thursday I was reading the reviews and checking out pricing and found that Microsoft was selling a “Family Pack” of the Home Premium edition of 7, which allows you to install it on 3 computers, for only $149.
Considering that buying the upgrade to Home Premium solo was something like $119, that was really a hell of a deal, and I was sorely tempted, especially knowing that it was a limited-time offer.
I also liked the idea of having a “spare” license on hand, since I only have three computers and I was already getting the free upgrade for the laptop.
There was one thing that was making me hesitate, though. While upgrading my secondary computer (Munin) and my laptop (Gungnir) to Windows 7 Home Premium was fine, given that they were currently running Vista Home Premium, that wouldn’t really work out so well on Hugin, my main system.
Why is that? Because on Hugin I was running Vista Ultimate, and in order to do an “in-place” upgrade from Vista to 7 – meaning that all of your files, settings, and applications are carried over to the new OS – you have to either go to a version that’s either the same or a higher edition.
So you can upgrade from Vista Home Premium up to 7 Home Premium, 7 Professional, or 7 Ultimate, but you can’t go from Vista Ultimate to a “lower” version without doing the “custom” install, which means that Windows is put into an entirely new directory and your settings and applications don’t automatically transfer over, which means having to go through the hassles of installing Windows and then re-installing all of your applications and re-customizing it.
Not an impossible task, obviously, but still a pain in the ass, and a hardship that I underwent not so long ago when I moved from 32-bit Vista to 64-bit.
Still, it was a very good price, by most accounts Windows 7 is a very good OS, and if I was going to run it on one of my computers I might as well have it on all of them, particularly since there are some cool 7-specific home networking features that make file-sharing a lot simpler.
Beyond that, the “extra” features of Vista Ultimate had never really been something I’d used, so I certainly didn’t need to have the Ultimate version of 7.
Still, the thought of all the work involved in doing the custom install and reinstalling all of my applications was a daunting one.
However, towards the end of the day Scott sent me a text letting me know that Costco had the “Family Pack” for an even better price: $125.
So that made up my mind for me.
We’d rescheduled Riff Trax night for Thursday this week, so after meeting up with Scott at my house we headed over to Costco for me to pick it up.
Though it was nearly my bedtime when Scott left, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer and that I would do the (relatively) simple “in-place” upgrade on Munin.
The install went fairly smoothly – at one point it came up with an error message, but once I clicked “OK” it went away and the install proceeded with no apparent issues – though it did take quite a while, and it was after midnight by the time it finished.
Back when I made the switch to Vista, I had to ditch my existing antivirus software because it wasn’t compatible – which is pretty common – so, for the hell of it, I decided to try the new antivirus software direct from Microsoft: Windows Live OneCare.
I actually really liked it, as it did a lot more than antivirus stuff; you could designate a computer as a “hub” that controlled different functions on other computers in your “OneCare Circle,” and it handled stuff like back-ups, optimizing, printer sharing, and so forth.
A while back MS decided to drop OneCare, with plans to stop supporting it entirely in 2010.
When running the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor I learned that it was incompatible with 7, so I ended up trying out the new, free antivirus program from MS, Microsoft Security Essentials. It seems pretty good, and I read a lot of good reviews of it, but I miss those extra functions that OneCare performed.
In any case, I made sure to install that before finally retiring for the night on Thursday.
On Friday I was (not) looking forward to a weekend of reinstalling all of my apps, but then I found a program online that, for 20 bucks, will actually transfer all of your apps over once you make the upgrade. It grabs all of the .dll files and the Registry entries and loads them up for you.
I’ve just finished upgrading to Windows 7 on Hugin, so I’ll be back with part two later on tomorrow (well, today).
(Oh, and the title of this post comes from the Danzig song 777)
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
A Small Request
No offense intended to Aaron Lopresti, but after reading the last couple of issues of Secret Six, I have a small request:
I can haz Nicola Scott as pensuller on Wonder Woman? kthxbai
I can haz Nicola Scott as pensuller on Wonder Woman? kthxbai
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
A Conversation At Work
Me: It's hot in here today. I'm actually sweating.
Co-Worker: Well, you are wearing a sweater.
Me: Yeah...but that's not where I'm sweating.
Co-Worker: ...
Co-Worker: Well, you are wearing a sweater.
Me: Yeah...but that's not where I'm sweating.
Co-Worker: ...
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
In Your Face, Vision Of My Own Death
My six-month dental check-up was scheduled for last Friday morning, but given that I had meetings all fucking day on Friday, I called in to reschedule it to this morning.
It was at 10:30, so as I thought about that last week I considered how much of a pain it would be to get up, drive to Herndon, be at work for two hours, then drive to Ashburn, then drive back to Herndon for the rest of the day, and I also considered that I needed to get my 5,000 mile maintenance done on my car, and I also considered that I like not being at work, so I decided to just take the day off.
Of course, as a result of my check-up I have to go back on Monday to get two crowns put in - which means, apparently, that I have to live without my bottom plate for a week for some reason, so I'll be doing even less smiling than usual - so I'm going to end up getting up, driving to Herndon, being at work for two hours, then driving up to Ashburn, then going back to Herndon for what remains of the workday anyway.
Oh well.
After finishing at the dentist I picked up my three-month supply of Purilens solution for my contacts from my eye doctor's Ashburn office, then ate lunch and realized that I didn't have enough time to really do anything before my maintenance appointment, but that if I drove straight there I'd be ridiculously early.
Ultimately I decided to just take my time getting there, but still ended up arriving 50 minutes early.
I decided to drive around for a while, mostly in pursuit of some place with a public restroom that could afford more privacy than a standard gas station restroom, and I became keenly aware of something that's been bothering me about Northern Virginia for the nearly seven years that I've lived here: nothing is conveniently located.
The landscape is riddled with industrial buildings, office complexes, and shopping plazas full of things like nail salons, piano repair shops, and pet stores, but actual useful places like grocery stores tend to be few and far between. Even convenience stores are inconveniently located, spread out sparsely across multiple counties.
(I just learned yesterday that some cities have laws dictating that gas stations can't be located too close to eah other, for some given value of "too close.")
I drove off in what I thought was a direction likely to lead to a Giant, or Bloom, or Safeway, but at the end of it found a hardware store, a Subway, and various nail salons, so I turned around and headed off in the opposite direction for several miles before finally finding a Harris Teeter.
Still, even after making use of the facilities, despite all of the driving around, I still arrived at the dealership a little early.
After that I was on my way home when I decided that I should stop at Target, though I didn't really know why.
After all, I just went shopping on Saturday, so Ididn't really need anything. Ultimately I decided that I would pick up Transformers 2 on Blu-ray.
Last winter I caught the sleeve of my leather jacket on something and ended up tearing a big hole in it. I've been thinking about picking up a replacement; something light enough to wear when it's just a little cool out, but sufficient to keep me warm on the trek from the parking garage to my cubicle.
So as I was headed - mostly pointlessly - to Target, I was going past the Outlet Mall, and thought about how there's still a Wilson's Leather actually open there, and one part of my mind decided that I should stop there first.
The other part of my mind, the part that knows that even on a Tuesday afternoon the Outlett Mall is far more crowded than a mostly open-air space out to be, objected.
That part tried to appeal to a third part of my mind to resist the first part, but that was the part that is apathetic and generally says, "Do whatever the hell you want. I don't care."
So as I made the lane change, in accordance with the first part of my mind's wishes, I said, "Really? We're doing this? *Sigh*"
I looked around for a while and found something I kind of liked on the clearance rack, but it didn't fit very well. I was about to give up, but found the same jacket in a slightly larger size, tried it on, and found that it fit well (except for the sleeves, which are always an issue for me; anything that fits my shoulders and the incongruous length of my torso is going to be a bit long in the sleeves) .
It's a pretty nice jacket; soft leather, lightweight, and designed to look rather like a leather sport coat. Not thrilled about the lack of external pockets, - it's got those fake pockets like you'd find on a sport coat - but overall it was the one I liked most , and with the clearance price I saved $250. Well, technically I didn't save that much, as if it had been selling for $400 I wouldn't have actually bothered buying it at all. Still, it was a good deal.
After that I went to Target and found myself wishing that I hadn't done my shopping on Saturday, as shopping at Target on a weekday afternoon would be comparatively pleasant. It made me miss my old work schedule.
When I have to do a bunch of running around like I did today - Leesburg to Ashburn, Ashburn to Chantilly, Chantilly back to Leesburg; for me that's a lot of running around - I spend some amount of time the night before mapping out my route and figuring out what stops I'll be making along the way and how I'm going to move from one point to another.
I was thinking about what method I would take to get to 28 after picking up the Purilens solution and getting lunch at McDonald's, trying to decide if I would take a right, then make a U-turn at the light, of if I would take my chances and just turn left, cutting across three lanes of traffic on a relatively - especially around noon - busy street.
As I thought about that, I imagined myself turning left quickly in a vain effort to beat oncoming traffic and very vividly pictured myself getting hit from both sides.
After picturing that I thought, "I think I may have just had a vision of my own death."
However, in reality, I was completely in the clear when I opted to make the left turn today, and as I did so, I said, "In your face, vision of my own death!"
Anyway, that was my day off, a day that went by altogether too quickly.
It was at 10:30, so as I thought about that last week I considered how much of a pain it would be to get up, drive to Herndon, be at work for two hours, then drive to Ashburn, then drive back to Herndon for the rest of the day, and I also considered that I needed to get my 5,000 mile maintenance done on my car, and I also considered that I like not being at work, so I decided to just take the day off.
Of course, as a result of my check-up I have to go back on Monday to get two crowns put in - which means, apparently, that I have to live without my bottom plate for a week for some reason, so I'll be doing even less smiling than usual - so I'm going to end up getting up, driving to Herndon, being at work for two hours, then driving up to Ashburn, then going back to Herndon for what remains of the workday anyway.
Oh well.
After finishing at the dentist I picked up my three-month supply of Purilens solution for my contacts from my eye doctor's Ashburn office, then ate lunch and realized that I didn't have enough time to really do anything before my maintenance appointment, but that if I drove straight there I'd be ridiculously early.
Ultimately I decided to just take my time getting there, but still ended up arriving 50 minutes early.
I decided to drive around for a while, mostly in pursuit of some place with a public restroom that could afford more privacy than a standard gas station restroom, and I became keenly aware of something that's been bothering me about Northern Virginia for the nearly seven years that I've lived here: nothing is conveniently located.
The landscape is riddled with industrial buildings, office complexes, and shopping plazas full of things like nail salons, piano repair shops, and pet stores, but actual useful places like grocery stores tend to be few and far between. Even convenience stores are inconveniently located, spread out sparsely across multiple counties.
(I just learned yesterday that some cities have laws dictating that gas stations can't be located too close to eah other, for some given value of "too close.")
I drove off in what I thought was a direction likely to lead to a Giant, or Bloom, or Safeway, but at the end of it found a hardware store, a Subway, and various nail salons, so I turned around and headed off in the opposite direction for several miles before finally finding a Harris Teeter.
Still, even after making use of the facilities, despite all of the driving around, I still arrived at the dealership a little early.
After that I was on my way home when I decided that I should stop at Target, though I didn't really know why.
After all, I just went shopping on Saturday, so Ididn't really need anything. Ultimately I decided that I would pick up Transformers 2 on Blu-ray.
Last winter I caught the sleeve of my leather jacket on something and ended up tearing a big hole in it. I've been thinking about picking up a replacement; something light enough to wear when it's just a little cool out, but sufficient to keep me warm on the trek from the parking garage to my cubicle.
So as I was headed - mostly pointlessly - to Target, I was going past the Outlet Mall, and thought about how there's still a Wilson's Leather actually open there, and one part of my mind decided that I should stop there first.
The other part of my mind, the part that knows that even on a Tuesday afternoon the Outlett Mall is far more crowded than a mostly open-air space out to be, objected.
That part tried to appeal to a third part of my mind to resist the first part, but that was the part that is apathetic and generally says, "Do whatever the hell you want. I don't care."
So as I made the lane change, in accordance with the first part of my mind's wishes, I said, "Really? We're doing this? *Sigh*"
I looked around for a while and found something I kind of liked on the clearance rack, but it didn't fit very well. I was about to give up, but found the same jacket in a slightly larger size, tried it on, and found that it fit well (except for the sleeves, which are always an issue for me; anything that fits my shoulders and the incongruous length of my torso is going to be a bit long in the sleeves) .
It's a pretty nice jacket; soft leather, lightweight, and designed to look rather like a leather sport coat. Not thrilled about the lack of external pockets, - it's got those fake pockets like you'd find on a sport coat - but overall it was the one I liked most , and with the clearance price I saved $250. Well, technically I didn't save that much, as if it had been selling for $400 I wouldn't have actually bothered buying it at all. Still, it was a good deal.
After that I went to Target and found myself wishing that I hadn't done my shopping on Saturday, as shopping at Target on a weekday afternoon would be comparatively pleasant. It made me miss my old work schedule.
When I have to do a bunch of running around like I did today - Leesburg to Ashburn, Ashburn to Chantilly, Chantilly back to Leesburg; for me that's a lot of running around - I spend some amount of time the night before mapping out my route and figuring out what stops I'll be making along the way and how I'm going to move from one point to another.
I was thinking about what method I would take to get to 28 after picking up the Purilens solution and getting lunch at McDonald's, trying to decide if I would take a right, then make a U-turn at the light, of if I would take my chances and just turn left, cutting across three lanes of traffic on a relatively - especially around noon - busy street.
As I thought about that, I imagined myself turning left quickly in a vain effort to beat oncoming traffic and very vividly pictured myself getting hit from both sides.
After picturing that I thought, "I think I may have just had a vision of my own death."
However, in reality, I was completely in the clear when I opted to make the left turn today, and as I did so, I said, "In your face, vision of my own death!"
Anyway, that was my day off, a day that went by altogether too quickly.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
That Didn't Happen
I had hoped to finish the picture I was working on in time to post it- with the hope of getting something posted before around 8, because...well, just because - but obviously that didn't happen.
I've done a fair amount of drawing this weekend, but don't really have anything to show for it. I've mostly been trying out different techniques and approaches, and finding that the end result is pretty much the same as what I get when I use my old techniques and approaches.
Meh.
Upon - finally - getting home Friday night I was pretty fried. Ten hours spent in meetings will do that to you, especially when four of those ten hours are spent in an "All Hands" meeting.
I'll just say I'm not a fan of them and leave it at that for now.
So I basically vegged out catching up on recorded TV.
Saturday I ventured out for the usual trip to the comic shop, but, having received a bunch of coupons in the mail, I decided to break the post-comic shop routine a little and go to Costco.
I knew it was going to suck, and it didn't disappoint in that regard, as I waded my way through a sea of crying children, oversized carts, and oversized asses.
I still ended up having to go to Target as there were some things I really didn't need to buy in bulk, and other things I couldn't find at all.
Today, as mentioned, I did some drawing.
And that pretty much brings us up to date.
I've done a fair amount of drawing this weekend, but don't really have anything to show for it. I've mostly been trying out different techniques and approaches, and finding that the end result is pretty much the same as what I get when I use my old techniques and approaches.
Meh.
Upon - finally - getting home Friday night I was pretty fried. Ten hours spent in meetings will do that to you, especially when four of those ten hours are spent in an "All Hands" meeting.
I'll just say I'm not a fan of them and leave it at that for now.
So I basically vegged out catching up on recorded TV.
Saturday I ventured out for the usual trip to the comic shop, but, having received a bunch of coupons in the mail, I decided to break the post-comic shop routine a little and go to Costco.
I knew it was going to suck, and it didn't disappoint in that regard, as I waded my way through a sea of crying children, oversized carts, and oversized asses.
I still ended up having to go to Target as there were some things I really didn't need to buy in bulk, and other things I couldn't find at all.
Today, as mentioned, I did some drawing.
And that pretty much brings us up to date.
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