Windows 7 – Day Two

Day Two is coming to a close, and Windows 7 is still doing quite well. Now, i haven’t put it under any heavy load yet, as I’ve been at work. But I was able to install the bootcamp files needed to get sound, the trackpad, as well as some other things fixed. The only downside was that I had to reinstall the windows 7 drivers i’d installed previously. But that’s not really something i’m ready to complain over, especially since if you’re going to dual boot a mac you should be ready for little hicups like that.

After that I installed Eve, Steam, and Pidgin; you know, the essentials. I haven’t installed any of my steam games, but Eve runs quite well. Pidgin works, I really didn’t expect that to break. I was able to get all my Danbo wallpapers from my desktop transferred over and they are now in slideshow mode for my wallpaper. Very sexy 😛

So far, so good. I’m really liking Windows 7. If things keep up like this I might break the cycle and buy a legit copy of Windows again. The last time i bought a copy of Windows it was XP, just after Vista came out.

We shall see 😀

Windows 7 – Day One

I installed Windows 7 on my macbook pro this morning. Why, you ask? Well, i had XP dual booted on it before, but wasn’t really using it for anything other than running my other account in Eve and for some programming work. It seemed it was the perfect test bed for Windows 7. The install went smoothly and it did everything it could with my mac, but i forgot my OSX dvd at home, so little things like bootcamp are still missing. This means that i don’t have sound, and i don’t think my wifi works. No worries though, because i plugged up my phone and it was able to use it’s internet connection right away!

I downloaded and installed some updates and then got right into installing Visual Studio C# Express and XNA Game Studio 3.0. Over my phone, it’s taking forever! C# finally installed and i’m about 50% on the XNA download (it’s only 62MB, but it’s been going for about an hour 🙁 )

So far here is what i like:

  1. Aero. So sexy, and it runs like a dream.
  2. The new desktop personalization features (having your desktop wallpaper change every x minutes; changing the base color of all your windows, taskbar, etc
  3. The new window changer, alt+tabbing between all your windows and getting a preview
  4. Being able to choose what icons are shown and which ones are hidden in your system tray.
  5. The snipping tool
  6. the new paint, it’s about fraking time!

That’s really all i have right now. Once i get home and i’m able to get some fat pipe connected to this thing, i’ll install steam, eve, and whatever else i’m missing (IM program maybe?). We’ll see how those run. All that after I install bootcamp and get everything working.

For anyone that has a fairly new (meaning in the last 3 or 4 years) computer that’s just sitting around collecting dust, but you’re not ready to try it on one of your main machines, I’d highly recommend this. I know this will probably be my main OS on my laptop. The only thing they need now it for Windows to be able to read other file systems (like ext3, hint hint!).

you can get the RC here.

work, life, and windows 7

Things have been going pretty good i suppose. Things at work are starting to ease up (except for these damned scans that run on my computer… so annoying (started at 10:42)), we’re making progress on our new solutions. I’m getting better at making connections to multiple databases, even across the interwebs. The data processing we do has been going smoothly too. Amazing how thing start working once you fix them.. after you find out they’re broken.

Michelle got a new contract, and is shipping at the end of the month (she’s joining the Navy). I’m pretty excited for her, even though it seems that she’s not as excited as I am.. makes things a bit weird. I don’t see how it’s not exciting, especially for her. It must really be really tough not even being 21 yet and already having the financial burdens of someone who’s finished a master’s degree. She’ll also be well on her way to being who she wants to be. I think right now being here in Radcliff has stagnated any progress she wants to be making with her life. I just find it awesome that she’ll be going out doing things she’s never done before..

So, i’m installing the windows 7 release candidate. It’s been installing for about 20 minutes now, and looks like it’s getting close to being done. Things are going quite smoothly, even though it’s on a macbook pro (i’d imagine i’d run into problems since i have to use bootcamp), but so far so good. If Windows 7 is everything i hope it is i might actually buy a copy! If it’s not, and it’s still better than Vista, I’ll have to stick to the tried and true way of “acquire from the intarwebs”.

You know that scan i mentioned? Yeah.. still running, still making my computer run like shit

Xbox 360 — a rediscovering

Sean and I played my 360 last night. It’s been.. almost 6 months since i last picked it up and played something. I’d picked up Tales of Vesperia over at Game Stop earlier that evening and was going to play that. Then I remembered Zach telling me about Castle Crashers and that i should play it. So I logged onto xbox.com and added some points to my account.

Once i had my points I headed over to the Arcade section of Xbox Live and got my copy of Castle Crashers. I then promptly headed over to the Community Games section to buy my own game (which i sadly still hadn’t done), reTension.

*cough* Buy my game! *cough*

Anyway, Sean and I ended up playing Castle Crashers for about 3 or 4 hours. It was the most fun I’d had on a console in a long time. I can’t wait to get home and play more 😀

I love you Gizmodo!

I created a Gizmodo account today, hopefully it’ll be approved. In the meantime, I’ll let you in on the posts that i found interesting and/or important.

http://i.gizmodo.com/5216895/im-a-pirate – i like the pirate code he links to. It makes sense to me. I could abide by that.

http://i.gizmodo.com/5219587/study-finds-pirates-buy-10x-more-music-online-than-non+pirates – AH HA! Take that RIAA propagandists!

http://i.gizmodo.com/5215425/summer-sf-and-ny-interns-wanted – I wish i could apply for this 🙁 I would love to run around playing with gadgets all day long!

http://i.gizmodo.com/5215835/prosciutto+wrapped-air-hose-cuts-through-steel-cucumber-version-proven-inferior — GO BACON POWER!

http://i.gizmodo.com/5216482/buses-in-oslo-to-get-poop-power — umm, yes?

http://i.gizmodo.com/5215714/acrylic-cowboy-revolutionizes-the-pc-case-by-eliminating-the-pc-case – I’d hate to see what happens after a guy with kids makes this.

http://i.gizmodo.com/5215079/obamas-crazy+ambitious-plan-for-high+speed-rail-lines-in-america – I want fast trains! According to the map the closest terminal would be Louisville, which would be ok with me.

http://i.gizmodo.com/5215456/this-robot-helicopter-snipes-better-than-you-with-an-xbox-360-controllerin-real-life – what? I think we’re getting closer and closer to unmanned warfare. Which is good and bad..

http://i.gizmodo.com/5214630/london-bar-pumps-gin-and-tonic-into-the-air-please-breathe-responsibly – Those crazy brits really do love their booze.

http://i.gizmodo.com/5214364/kabutom-mx+03-beetlebot-a-fine-first-pet-for-young-decepticons – GIANT ROBOT! DO WANT!

it’s been a while.. I KNOW!

I know I haven’t really been blogging much lately. I’m not really sure why.. probably just a bit too lazy.

I’ve mainly been working, hanging out with Michelle, playing video games, and trying to make sure the plants in the yard don’t die. Except for that last one, everything is going well 🙂

Work has been the same as usual, we’ve been put on a new project that’s supposed to take priority over everything, and then they promptly start giving us other requests that are supposed to be the new priority over the previous top priority. It’s a wonder we ever get anything done around here.

Michelle and I have been officially a couple for about a week now. It’s kinda weird having a girlfriend. I like hanging out with her, but at the same time it’s hard to do that when i still want to follow my old habits (ie: play video games and browse the interwebs). I’ve also liked my solitude, I like having my alone time. But the times that we do spend together, i do enjoy — a great deal.

I’ve been taking a break from Eve. Well, kinda. It’s a combination of being bored sitting in station camped, and being distracted by the previous paragraph 😛 I played for a bit on Saturday and on Sunday. We did some ice mining and tried to kill some reds that wanted some pewpew.

*le sigh* The yard has taken a beating this weekend. Everything was going fine until yesterday and the torrential downpour. I had transplanted all the plants from their planters into the yard, so you know, they can grow into huge fruit bearing plants and give me food! Well, after yesterday, they’re all drowned and only a few are still alive. After everything dries up, I’ll have to put some irrigation in there, the clay dirt doesn’t like to absorb water very well..