Frustration

Thanks to everyone - all one of you* - who suggested possible titles. I actually sought out assistance in the Comments over at Slacktivist and went with one of the suggestions from someone there: Blood Drift.
Even after switching to the different wireless adapter, Munin continued to exhibit the problems it had been having under Windows 7.
I decided that the thing to do was to restore it to factory condition, download a BIOS update that I didn't think to download before upgrading - and which wouldn't run under Windows 7 - and some firmware updates for the hard drive and DVD drive, then try a clean install of Windows 7.
During one of the brief periods in which I had Internet connectivity I found a newer driver for the built-in wireless adapter, but installing that didn't fix the problem.
That didn't really surprise me, as it was clear that the problem was bigger than just that one driver, as no USB device connected to the computer would work properly.
Attempting to copy files to an external hard drive, for example, would result in the transfer eventually stalling out and the hard drive light actually turning off. The drive would still appear to be accessible - I could explore it, but not actually open any files on it - but clearly wasn't working.
This was actually a major fly in the ointment, as I needed to back up my internal hard drive before doing the factory restore, which reformats the drive and erases everything on it.
After several vain attempts to get the files copied over to my external drive I finally hit upon an idea: download an .iso of some Linux distro, burn a CD, boot from that, and copy the files over to the external drive.
So I found some random distro, burned it to CD, booted...and found that it didn't have drivers for my display, so once it actually loaded up I couldn't see anything.
Undaunted (well, somewhat daunted), I found a distro of Ubuntu Linux, burned the .iso, booted from that, and success!
With that accomplished, I dug out my recovery CDs, booted up...and realized that I didn't actually need the CDs, as the recovery files are stored in a partition on the hard drive and I could have just hit F11 during bootup to run the recovery from there.
Worse, I completely forgot that the restore process actually gives you an opportunity to run a back-up before proceeding, so it's possible I could have skipped the whole Linux process (though I'm not 100% sure on that; choosing to "Backup Now" might have just booted me back into Windows, where the backing up wouldn't have worked, given the USB communications issues.)
After doing the factory restore I found that my BIOS was actually up to date anyway.
*Sigh*
It was very late by this time, though, so I waited until this morning to reinstall Windows 7.
This time around the problem with the wireless adapter appeared right away.
I didn't even bother trying to download the new driver.
Instead I opted to disable the adapter and pick up one of those power line networking kits.
It actually works pretty well. You hook one adapter up to the router, then plug it into the wall outlet. Then you take the other adapter, hook it up to the computer you want to add to the network, plug it into the wall outlet, and voila, the network signal is traveling through the electrical wiring in the house. So far with that method I'm able to network Munin without the problems I was having with the wireless adapter(s).
I may buy another adapter so that I can hook my Blu-ray player and media extender up to the network (it's faster than the wireless connection my media extender currently has, and the Blu-ray player doesn't have wireless).
So it took more than a week, but it seems that - knock on wood - I finally have Windows 7 running properly and can now actually enjoy some of the new features.
Apart from messing around with Windows 7 and doing the usual comic book and grocery shopping, in the late afternoon/early evening I decided to bail on any trick-or-treaters and see a movie. Unlike last year, when I bailed on them but left candy - which some little bastard promptly stole, apparently - this year I said, "Screw you, kids!' and left nothing.
The movie in question was Zombieland, which was freakin' hilarious.
I'm not sure how much posting I'll be doing for the next month, as I'll be working on the novel trying to churn out 50,000 words in 30 days.
This time around will be more of a challenge than the other two times, as I don't have as much free time as I did back then, what with the four days off (and having time to actually write while I was at work), and I really want to write something that's at least halfway decent this time around. Of course, that's what I wanted to do the other two times, and that really didn't work out, so I'm not terribly confident that this year will be different.
In any case, I'm not going to blog my chapters as I write them like I did the first time around, though, unless it turns out to be complete garbage (there's a better than average chance of that), I will probably share it in some fashion once I'm finished.

*I'm honestly not bitter about the lack of comments in the Comments. I'm a realist; I know how little traffic this blog gets and how little there is to actually comment on. Seriously, I'm not bitter. Well, not terribly bitter, at any rate. I mean, it does bother me a little when I explicitly ask for comments and don't get any (other than from Scott), but it's not like I expected any, so I guess it all works out.

Pen Flicks

So Tablet-enabled versions of Windows have a feature called "Pen Flicks."
They allow you to perform certain functions in Windows by gesturing on a touch screen, either with a pen or with your fingers.
I've never really made use of the feature, personally.
...
That's what was killing the pressure-sensitivity in Photoshop.
Pen Flicks.
I discovered this by randomly turning off any Tablet PC function I could and testing to see if it made a difference.
Pen Flicks.
Oh well, at least now I know.
Munin seems to be generally hosed, though; the problem clearly wasn't with the driver for the built-in wireless adapter, as the USB one hasn't fared much better. I think I'm going to have to just do a complete reinstall.

*Sigh*

It was bound to happen.

Everyone and his brother bitched about all the problems with Windows Vista and how much it sucked and meanwhile I had very few issues with it, and actually kind of liked it.

On the other hand – with the usual dissenters – most people agree that Windows 7 is teh awesome and report very few problems with it, while I end up having all of the problems they apparently had with Vista.

Still, if I can get past the problems, there are a lot of things I like about Windows 7, though many of them are simple “gee-whiz, tha't’s kind of cool” things rather than major changes to performance and the interface or anything like that.

The Good:

The “Peek” function is cool.  If you have a bunch of windows open you can just hover over this button in the lower right-hand corner and all of the open windows turn transparent, allowing you to see the desktop. 

Thumbnail views of open windows when you hover over them on the taskbar are also cool, and it makes use of the “Peek” function:  if you hover over the thumbnail, all windows in front of it turn transparent.

I really like the idea of using Libraries to organize content in a disorganized fashion.

Grabbing a window and “shaking” it causes all other open windows to be minimized.  More fun than functional, I guess.

Jumplists, an evolution of “Recent Documents” is pretty sweet.  When a program is “pinned” to the Start Menu or taskbar, you can right-click on it and see a list of files recently opened by that application.

Native support for .iso burning is a long overdue new feature.  Right-click on the file, choose “Burn to Disc,” and you’re all set.

I like the new look of Media Center – and the rather ostentatious new start-up sound – and I’m hoping that more content will eventually be added to the Internet TV function.

The Indifferent:

Along with native burning support for .iso files, it would have been nice to have a built-in feature to mount them as drives.

I’m not seeing the supposed native support for .mov files.

The Bad:

Still no native Blu-ray support?  I don’t buy the “it would add $30 to the cost” argument.

The Downright Horrible:

When I got home on Friday I decided to try playing around with Windows 7 on Munin before installing it on Hugin.

However, the network status icon was showing me that my computer had “limited connectivity,” in that it was still connected to my network, but couldn’t access the Internet.

I tried the standard fix action:  a reboot.  This caused it to get as far as the “Shutting Down” down screen, but no further.  Eventually I had to kill the power.  Once it booted up, though, it was back on the Internet.  For a while.  I tried to adjust some of the network options for it, but the network options screen froze as soon as I tried to change anything.  So I went into Device Manager to try to uninstall the driver so that it would reinstall upon reboot.  Device Manager froze.  I rebooted.  Stuck and “Shutting Down.”

After the reboot, it was back to normal, so I took advantage of the brief window of opportunity to try to locate a new driver.  None available.  The loss of connectivity would happen at random times, and would always cause the failure to actually shut down and reboot, and even began interfering with transferring files to and from a USB drive.

I searched in vain – on the other computers – for an answer online.

Meanwhile I was dealing with some post-upgrade issues on Hugin, though those were less severe.  However, I do have on major problem:  Photoshop isn’t recognizing the pressure-sensitivity of my Cintiq.  This is a very big deal, as even the lightest press results in a thick, flat line.  Pressure-sensitivity is working in other applications – including other Adobe apps, like Illustrator – but not in Photoshop.  Not sure what to do about that one, since, as usual, the Internet is no help.

In any case, to resolve the wireless issue on Munin I decided to just disable the built-in adapter and use one of my old USB adapters.  I didn’t have a flash drive handy, so when I downloaded the drivers for the USB adapter on Hugin I saved them to my network drive, since even when Munin loses Internet access it remains connected to my network.  Of course, I had to try to get at Munin during the brief window in which I could go into Device Manager and disable the adapter without it freezing things up.

Naturally – and there’s no way you can convince me that this wasn’t the Universe just straight-up messing with me – the problem had gotten worse and the adapter would no longer connect to my network at all.  So I had to grab a flash drive, put the drivers on it – since I could no longer access the network drive from Munin – cut the power, boot into Safe Mode, disable the adapter, reboot, and then install the USB adapter, all of which took much longer than it should have.

As it stands now, I have the USB adapter in place and things appear to be working.  Still trying to figure out the Photoshop problem, though.

Anyway, if this post looks weird it’s because I’m trying the Windows Live Writer, which lets you write blog posts offline and then publish them directly rather than writing them in Word and pasting them into Blogger, or writing directly in Blogger, which has certain drawbacks.

7 Come And 7 Go And 7 Still Remain

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)

I Won't Be Sorry

I’ve gotten into the habit of hitting the comic shop on Saturday mornings rather than on my way home from work on Wednesday afternoons, but this morning as I prepared to venture out to gas up and buy groceries I almost forgot about that newly-acquired habit.
I had a much smaller stack this week, but I ended up supplementing my regular purchases with some additional items.
I’ve mentioned writer Gail Simone here many times, for both her work in writing comics, and her former work writing about comics in an hilarious online column titled You’ll All Be Sorry!
(In fact, over on the right is a link to archives of her YABS columns.)
Some brilliant person had the bright idea to collect YABS into a book, and when I saw it at the comic shop I decided I’d pick it up. I know that I won’t be sorry that I did.
I actually stumbled across the book while looking for something else: the hardcover collection of Camelot 3000.
Camelot 3000 was a maxi-series published by DC in the early 80s that told the story of the return of King Arthur in 31st Century England.
I’ve never read it, even though as a kid I desperately wanted to. My desperation was created by the house ads DC ran for which featured the always beautiful artwork of Brian Bolland.
In any case, I snagged the last copy of the hardcover that the comic shop had, so that was my mini-coup for the week.
The reason I was never able to read it as a kid, by the way, is that it was a “direct sales only” book, which meant that it wasn’t available on the rack at grocery stores, being sold only by subscription or at comic book shops. It wouldn’t be until years after the maxi-series had ended that I would have a comic shop within 100 miles of me, and by that time I had other priorities.
Not much of interest has happened – shocking, I know – since my last entry.
Scott came over for Riff Trax night on Wednesday – we watched the Riffed versions of Fantastic Four 1 and 2, which were hilarious, as well as a comic-themed episode of Numb3rs from last season (which I wrote about here) that I’d recorded so he could see it – and he became the first person besides myself to actually make use of my new furniture.
On the work front, the first full week back after having time off is always the longest, and this week was no exception. After months of hearing an odd squeaking sound coming from the hard drive and putting up with my system locking up, getting a message informing me that my battery needed to be replaced served as the impetus to hand my laptop over to IT to get a new hard drive put in. I also got a new battery – one of the extended kind that has a much longer run time – though that wasn’t as vital as the hard drive, as I hardly ever use my laptop without it either being in the docking station or at least plugged in.
While the – always temporary – boost in speed that you get from a fresh install is nice, it’s always a pain to get things back to the way you used to have them. There are so many little customizations that I’d done – though fortunately I hadn’t had much non-standard software installed, so I didn’t have to worry about that – many of which I’d kind of forgotten were customizations, and which I therefore had forgotten how to set, that I spent about an hour or two getting things back to normal after I’d picked it up from IT.
Speaking of computers, yesterday Microsoft made the beta of Windows 7 available to the public as a free download. For a little while, at least. Apparently there was too much demand for the servers to keep up, so they pulled it and will be putting it back up once they get some more servers in place.
I was thinking about trying to resolve the weird power issue that Munin, my old computer, is having, and then installing the beta onto that to try it out. I still may after the beta becomes available again.
(Update: It’s available again. The download is a 2.44 GB ISO. I’ve downloaded it, but by the time I get around to burning the DVD and figuring out what’s wrong with Munin the trial period will probably have expired. If you want to check it out, go here.)
Other than having to deal with the usual obstacle course of old people and children when I went grocery shopping, and making a pizza – actually making it; I bought the components of a pizza rather than a frozen one – when I got home, that’s pretty much all that’s been going on.