Hard News: Siren song
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I was trying to come up with a response to Russell's Vista problems but I think Stephen Judd nailed it really.
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Don = Invizabul beerd! ZOMG!
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Russell, seriously, a clean install of Windows 7 Beta is your best bet. Vista is poos (http://xkcd.com/528/), and this is coming from a hardened Microsoft user and developer.
Are you sure about this Ben? I thought Russell and family used the Windows box for gaming so I would presume there'd be scant drivers for sound and graphics devices in Win7 as well as maybe issues with a Directx version (which is possibly why Leo was keen to upgrade to Vista in the first place).
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I was trying to come up with a response to Russell's Vista problems but I think Stephen Judd nailed it really.
That Unix users aren't very helpful? Yeh, I think he's probably getting that point :-)
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Well, we got the SP1 installer to chug all the way through its process after launching Vista into safe mode this time.
And then we got the "SP1 did not install -- reverting changes now" message.
The PC came with Vista installed, but we also had a copy of Vista Ultimate and used that for the re-install last week.
It really is miserable.
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That Unix users aren't very helpful?
Oh, help? Help? Sorry, we just practise the three Ss: sarcasm, smugness, and snickering.
We're helpful to other Unix users though :D
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The PC came with Vista installed, but we also had a copy of Vista Ultimate and used that for the re-install last week.
Ah, something it could be is that the original (OEM) Vista left something behind (unless you reformatted the disk for the reinstall) which is fucking around with your reinstall. Not sure about that, but it would depend on what type of install you did. I've run into this a few times with OEM XP installs,which frankly is about the point where I reporpse the box and add it to a linux cluster, if it survived being tossed hard against the wall, that it)
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That Unix users aren't very helpful? Yeh, I think he's probably getting that point :-)
Dude, there are four other computers in the house: one running Linux and three Macs.
The bloody Windows box is the only one that plays all the cool games.
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And, IIRC, service packs don't install in safe mode anyway, as that's really only for doing diagnostics, but I may be mistaken on that.
In other news, my PPC Mac Mini had a HDD seizure the other night and is pretty much a paper weight. Iwasn't using it for much but it seems too pretty to just dispose of. Is it worth getting it fixed, d'you think?
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I refuse to run Vista, even in a virtual box. When I have to use Windows, it's XP sp2 which is as solid as Windows gets.
I've been using Vista 64 SP1 for I don't know how long, it's the most stable OS I've ever seen. (I haven't used Windows 7 yet, so don't know if I'll like that more or the same, but it sounds like "more" is odds on favourite.)
In fact I'm so happy with Vista that I've started to wonder if the whole Vista hatred bandwagon is some kind of ironic joke that everyone else is in on, but that I just don't get.
Seriously, it's been so good for me. Everything always works and it has never, ever, ever crashed. Ever.
(Actually it's not true that everything works, there's an obsolete Cisco VPN client that refuses to install - by design. They specifically detect 64 bit windows and refuse to continue. But that's it.)
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The bloody Windows box is the only one that plays all the cool games.
It's a pain in the arse isn't it. Damned Directx and it's one OS dependency!
Embarrassingly enough, at home we now have;
3 x Windows machines (PC, laptop* and eeePC netbook)
2 x Mac machines (iMac and Macbook*)
1 x LinuxIs it too much for 4 people? I'm not sure.
*=work
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Now that I think about, cultivating a gentlemanly ignorance of Microsoft's products has spared me from the informal tech support obligations which so many of my colleagues in the Windows world suffer from. "Help you with your computer? I'm sorry, it's all Windows to me!" Exit stage left, laughing gaily.
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What Morgan Nichol said – I vote for Vista 64 SP1 too, but if you install it you'll probably lose all your saved games (if they aren't gone already).
I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm happy with Vista 64 Ultimate, though -- it still looks like crap and doesn't do that window-as-document thing that seemed so obvious back in the days of the Lisa -- but it does run games, download torrents and deliver movies to my TV by way of a PS3 without fuss. Things too menial for a proper computer.
A problem I've had is that Vista's incredibly annoying security won't let me access files that were created with earlier versions of Windows. It tells me I don't have the necessary privileges, or something, to read the Word documents I imagined I had saved as backups. I should find out how to fix this, but life is too short.
Luckily I learned long ago not to trust anything important to Windows. I suggest you back up stuff you really want to keep to a networked drive or the internal drive of a Mac before you repave your C drive. And then make sure you can read it with one of those proper computers.
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Vista here too. Not because I wanted it, but because someone else got the stink job of installing it when I purchased my new workstation and it was that or an older MS product. Doesn't seem any better or worse than predecessors, just a little different in the usual pointless annoying ways that marketing dream up. The only exception is: Sometimes it opts to just reboot without asking, to install updates. I really hate this, being one of those people who never turns their machine off, feeling that boot-up time is life I'll never get back. I'm sure it can be turned off, and I'm equally sure that working out how will take longer than all the reboots I'll ever have to do. So I just put up.
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Those people suggesting Windows 7, I just had a look, the Beta is no longer available, well not from Microsoft at least.
Never had any major problems running Vista here myself, although I am finding it impossible to get complete administrator control, even though I osntensibly have all the privileges and I'm the computer's only user. I keep getting told "you don't have permission" to delete stuff, open stuff, move stuff...
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Never had any major problems running Vista here myself, although I am finding it impossible to get complete administrator control, even though I osntensibly have all the privileges and I'm the computer's only user. I keep getting told "you don't have permission" to delete stuff, open stuff, move stuff...
This is what a typical Microsoft products user (of which I am one, I hasten to add) considers "not having major problems".
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I am finding it impossible to get complete administrator control, even though I osntensibly have all the privileges and I'm the computer's only user
Have you tried using 'sudo'?
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Have you tried using 'sudo'?
? :)
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Is it too much for 4 people? I'm not sure.
On the contrary, six computers for four people is not *nearly* enough. We have four for two, plus the CPU/video card/DVD drive/motherboard/extra hard drives waiting to be swapped out in one of the computers (I know, I know, we should just get a case and power supply and make it a fifth). The other half is voting for the iPod touch to be counted as well. At our flat, we had fifteen computers among six people. And I would bet reasonable sums of money that someone else on the forums could top that count.
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Craig - does Server 08 handle the laptopness ok? I wonder if it would support the devices on my tx2500 tablet?
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? :)
Windows has sudo, right?
@emma nice, I'd forgotten that one.
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I must say, I'm struck by how weird and difficult Microsoft makes it.
I've just been given the brush off by MS support: "It's not that we don't want to help you, but..."
Turns out the application I have been using for the last 7 years is now something else, but apparently I've got something different again installed. So the so-called "Windows Genuine Advantage" isn't happy.
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Back to Auckland Festival - Siren sounds interesting, and if I can, I will try to still catch it. I thought I might mention, as someone involved in the festival and having seen a few pack in and rehearse - the one opening tomorrow, The Anderson Project, I whole heatedly recommend it. It manages to balance the fine line of using technology to delivering a fantastic experience - while not destroying the skill of good theatre.
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@Mark Harris
A simple Google of 'replace hard disc in Mac mini' got numerous helpful looking sites. Looks like you just need a thin thing like a pallette knife to ease the sides apart and a small Phillips screwdriver. These things are much less scary than you think and the repair companies want you think. I'm a biologist and have done numerous Mac surgeries, incluing 10 days ago a new DC in board in a G4 iBook which turned it (with help from a new battery and power supply) from a brick that might start up, for 10seconds into a singing dancing portable laptop again. That one took a thin thing and Allen key and Phillips screwdrivers. Be glad it isn't a HD swap on a RevB iMac, that is real surgery. I do PSPs too.Tip, sit where you can touch something metal that is grounded, in our case it's the radiator. Also keep some small containers for the screws in order so you know which ones go back where and they can't roll away, they are very hard to find in carpet. Go on, what have you got to lose?
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