A Few Blurbs
Hello again readers. Long time, no write. I hope everyone is doing well.
Today's post is a collection of fever induced random thoughts.
I see that Bush is at his brain-dead best again. Today he decided to draw parallels between the American Revolution and the current war on terror. Had George decided to pay attention in history class, he might have noted that, in British eyes, the American rebels were indeed terrorists! Had he paid attention in Political Science, he might also have noted that in drawing a parallel between the Revolution and the war on terror he just handed the terrorists a large propaganda weapon. What I mean is, now the terrorists can use his words against himself, casting themselves as the modern equivalent of the American rebels fighting for their freedom. What's worse is that they can cast the US in the role of revolutionary-era Britain, in other words they can cast us in the role of oppressor. Yes George, try paying attention more and talking less and you will find that you don't have to extract your foot from your mouth quite as often.
In other news, I see that Britney Spears shaved her head this weekend. I also see that there has been an uproar about it in the press. My take is "who cares". If she wants to do her Sinead O'Connor impersonation, let her, it is her choice. If the press wants to be outraged by her behavior, I would think the fact that she checked into, and out of, rehab might be a bit more worthy of a self righteous outrage. The question I have for the press is, why is it outrageous for her to shave her head, but not noteworthy, in your obvious opinion, to cover the fact that she has turned into a drug-taking party girl who may be neglecting her kids. I guess in the eyes of the press, the kids don't count.
In personal news, I finally took delivery of my new computer. Unfortunately, I had to wait a bit longer than I had expected as my supplier could not get the s7612n system he promised. Instead he substituted a HP s7700n system at no additional charge (damned nice of him!). The only differences between the 7612 and the 7700 is that the 7700 has a 250GB HDD instead of a 200GB HDD, and it came with Windows Vista. The Vista edition is Vista Home Premium. It is very much an eye candy operating system. It looks great. For me, it took some getting used to, but now I actually like it. Vista does have some drawbacks. First, it does indeed ask permission to run nearly anything. However, it only does this until it familiarizes itself with the software that you are running. For example, when I was setting up the system, Vista asked me to approve or disapprove something about every thirty seconds. Now that I have all of my software installed, the only time it asks me for something is when an app hangs. Then, when an app hangs, Vista becomes somewhat helpful in that it asks whether you would like it to go online and find a solution to the problem or not. Another drawback is, that like any new OS, enough has changed that not all of my software works with it. For example, I had a copy of Executive Software's Diskeeper for WinXP. When I tried to install it on Vista, I was informed by Vista that the software was not compatible. Vista searched for a solution, but in the end, the only solution to the problem was for me to buy a new copy from the manufacturer. That was actually the exception rather than the rule. Most of my software didn't need repurchasing, just updating. If you have Vista and something won't work, be sure that your software is updated to the latest version. An example of this is the fact that I bought Intuit's Quicken Basic from the local Walmart. When I got home, I installed it on the system. Vista quickly told me that the program had issues. So, I went to Intuit's website and found out that I had to download version 4 of the program (oob mine was only version 2). Once I updated the program the issues disappeared and Quicken now runs fine. My advice on upgrading from Windows XP to Vista is wait about 6 months or so. This waiting period will allow Microsoft to kick out some of the bugs in the OS and thus make it a more stable system. Speaking of stability, I have had the system for about a week now and haven't experienced the slightest instability (and I've even tweaked it a bit for performance). Also, don't believe all of the doom and gloom reviews, yes, the EULA is distinctly slanted against the consumer, but all of the bull about how Microsoft now controls you computer and can do things to prevent your software from running is just that, bull. The security programs that are included are easily turned on and off, and are easily configurable. It is my conclusion that the reviewers who are asserting these things should quit reviewing computer software and start working for the Department of Homeland Security. At least at DHS, they could put their baseless paranoia to good use. Short of that, they may wish to use the software for more than 15 minutes before writing a review. Unlike most of the kids doing the reviews, I have been working with computers for twenty plus years, and in my opinion, not only is Vista the best looking version of Windows to date, it is also the most secure, and the most stable. I will, however, reserve my final judgment of Vista's stability for about 6 months (I've only had a weeks worth of up time so far).
Well, that's about it for this entry. Judging from what has been going on lately, empirical evidence and critical thinking are no longer needed to write the news. Now all that's needed is ignorance, a misguided sense of morality, and a raging paranoia.
As always, I am Chuck and this post has been written on an HP Pavilion Slimline s7700n PC running Windows Vista Home Premium.
Today's post is a collection of fever induced random thoughts.
I see that Bush is at his brain-dead best again. Today he decided to draw parallels between the American Revolution and the current war on terror. Had George decided to pay attention in history class, he might have noted that, in British eyes, the American rebels were indeed terrorists! Had he paid attention in Political Science, he might also have noted that in drawing a parallel between the Revolution and the war on terror he just handed the terrorists a large propaganda weapon. What I mean is, now the terrorists can use his words against himself, casting themselves as the modern equivalent of the American rebels fighting for their freedom. What's worse is that they can cast the US in the role of revolutionary-era Britain, in other words they can cast us in the role of oppressor. Yes George, try paying attention more and talking less and you will find that you don't have to extract your foot from your mouth quite as often.
In other news, I see that Britney Spears shaved her head this weekend. I also see that there has been an uproar about it in the press. My take is "who cares". If she wants to do her Sinead O'Connor impersonation, let her, it is her choice. If the press wants to be outraged by her behavior, I would think the fact that she checked into, and out of, rehab might be a bit more worthy of a self righteous outrage. The question I have for the press is, why is it outrageous for her to shave her head, but not noteworthy, in your obvious opinion, to cover the fact that she has turned into a drug-taking party girl who may be neglecting her kids. I guess in the eyes of the press, the kids don't count.
In personal news, I finally took delivery of my new computer. Unfortunately, I had to wait a bit longer than I had expected as my supplier could not get the s7612n system he promised. Instead he substituted a HP s7700n system at no additional charge (damned nice of him!). The only differences between the 7612 and the 7700 is that the 7700 has a 250GB HDD instead of a 200GB HDD, and it came with Windows Vista. The Vista edition is Vista Home Premium. It is very much an eye candy operating system. It looks great. For me, it took some getting used to, but now I actually like it. Vista does have some drawbacks. First, it does indeed ask permission to run nearly anything. However, it only does this until it familiarizes itself with the software that you are running. For example, when I was setting up the system, Vista asked me to approve or disapprove something about every thirty seconds. Now that I have all of my software installed, the only time it asks me for something is when an app hangs. Then, when an app hangs, Vista becomes somewhat helpful in that it asks whether you would like it to go online and find a solution to the problem or not. Another drawback is, that like any new OS, enough has changed that not all of my software works with it. For example, I had a copy of Executive Software's Diskeeper for WinXP. When I tried to install it on Vista, I was informed by Vista that the software was not compatible. Vista searched for a solution, but in the end, the only solution to the problem was for me to buy a new copy from the manufacturer. That was actually the exception rather than the rule. Most of my software didn't need repurchasing, just updating. If you have Vista and something won't work, be sure that your software is updated to the latest version. An example of this is the fact that I bought Intuit's Quicken Basic from the local Walmart. When I got home, I installed it on the system. Vista quickly told me that the program had issues. So, I went to Intuit's website and found out that I had to download version 4 of the program (oob mine was only version 2). Once I updated the program the issues disappeared and Quicken now runs fine. My advice on upgrading from Windows XP to Vista is wait about 6 months or so. This waiting period will allow Microsoft to kick out some of the bugs in the OS and thus make it a more stable system. Speaking of stability, I have had the system for about a week now and haven't experienced the slightest instability (and I've even tweaked it a bit for performance). Also, don't believe all of the doom and gloom reviews, yes, the EULA is distinctly slanted against the consumer, but all of the bull about how Microsoft now controls you computer and can do things to prevent your software from running is just that, bull. The security programs that are included are easily turned on and off, and are easily configurable. It is my conclusion that the reviewers who are asserting these things should quit reviewing computer software and start working for the Department of Homeland Security. At least at DHS, they could put their baseless paranoia to good use. Short of that, they may wish to use the software for more than 15 minutes before writing a review. Unlike most of the kids doing the reviews, I have been working with computers for twenty plus years, and in my opinion, not only is Vista the best looking version of Windows to date, it is also the most secure, and the most stable. I will, however, reserve my final judgment of Vista's stability for about 6 months (I've only had a weeks worth of up time so far).
Well, that's about it for this entry. Judging from what has been going on lately, empirical evidence and critical thinking are no longer needed to write the news. Now all that's needed is ignorance, a misguided sense of morality, and a raging paranoia.
As always, I am Chuck and this post has been written on an HP Pavilion Slimline s7700n PC running Windows Vista Home Premium.
posted by Chuck | 00:54
2 Comments:
If you find stand alone drivers for this comp you should totally let everyone know. Fags at HP don't have them posted.
First, thank you for leaving a comment.
Second, have you tried the manufacturers' (not HP's) sites (i.e. nVidia, Lite On, etc.)? I've been using the drivers listed on HP's site (Realtek, nVidia, the HP keyboard) and/or the generic Vista drivers and I've had no problems. Until I do start having problems, I am probably not going to go looking for stand alones, nor am I going to be listing them. This isn't supposed to be a computer related blog. In fact, this is supposed to be a political blog, but I've gone pretty far afield lately.
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