So I take it that the 7 stands for the 7 hours you spend installing, panicking, cursing and generally praying for nuclear holocaust after you decide to upgrade?
I wouldn’t worry too much. Right about now is when Obama will read the riot act to these wobbly congress creatures to vote yes on cloture and no on passage if they desire. Make them an offer they can’t refuse. Or, you obstruct an up or down vote on the Marquee issue of the Democratic party, may gawd have mercy on yer soul, cause the Presnit will own your asses. They have no where to go but the GOP if they do that, and what choice is that? But the PO will be an opt out, I suspect.
11.
Mike in NC
Don’t you feel better now that you’ve helped pay for another solid gold doorknob in Bill Gates’ 300 room mansion?
I have to tell you that I just upgraded my MacBook to Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.1) and synced my bookmarks, system settings, address book, email, and I don’t know what-all from my iMac via MobileMe to the MacBook. Totally flawless all the way around. Then I cloned both the buggers, hah!
Perhaps you should post something since he was blasted on the front page? You know, letting people give to NPR again? I mean it was DougJ but it’s still YOUR blog.
Now give Tunch and Lily a treat and to celebrate this victory.
How bout one of those Orangeades and Sprites?
18.
Soylent Green
Wait till you see the latest Mac guy vs. PC guy commercial airing today, “It’s not going to have any of the problems (fill in blank with OS going back to Win 95) had, trust me.”
19.
theturtlemoves
No offense dude, but if it really took you twelve hours to do a Windows 7 installation… damn. It took me two hours to do one that included installation and configuration of Office 2010 beta and re-joining the corporate domain remotely. So, before all the Microsoft haters get on a roll, we might want to investigate any possible issues between the chair and the keyboard. Seriously, what the hell took you so long?
@JHF: Yeah- the snow leopard upgrade was super easy.
In fairness, I should have known better than to try the upgrade rather than a clean install. I went through this hell about ten years ago trying to upgrade and ended up just doing a full install.
One nice thing- Windows Seven seems faster than Vista, and a little more intuitive. Almost, dare I say, a little more Mac like. Plus, it recognized my video card and autodownloaded the drivers, as well as a number of other things. In fact, the only thing it seems I will have to download is my Cyberpower battery backup.
Again, other than a few hiccups at first, I loved Vista. Thought it was really nice. The only reason I am upgrading now is because where I work we will be buying new computers and someone has to know the ins and outs of Seven. That someone is me.
@MNPundit: He spent the whole first paragraph saying why it was true and why Obama was being juvenile before sorta apologizing? Weak.
23.
MikeJ
Perhaps you should post something since he was blasted on the front page? You know, letting people give to NPR again? I mean it was DougJ but it’s still YOUR blog.
Fuck ’em. Let him show up in person and ask for forgiveness.
24.
SiubhanDuinne
@MNPundit. That was a good apology, and full marks to Rudin. None of the customary “I-apologize-if-anyone-was-offended” crap. It sounds sincere.
But you know, this is NPR’s beg-a-thon week, and I can’t help wondering if they heard from listeners who were offended by Rudin’s original comparison, who said they would not be providing financial support and here’s why. Maybe NPR nudged him a little? You think?
25.
The Other Steve
I have three computers to upgrade this weekend. Our media center PC, the upstairs desktop and my laptop.
26.
Brick Oven Bill
Stop playing the victim John Cole.
FBI agents are now referring callers to Glenn Beck. You do not mess with Glenn Beck. The odds of him being installed as interim President have risen to 47%.
LauraW, this is your chance to be a part on the future. ‘Glenn’.
“Pay me good money and I will close the achievement gap.” That military hardware we purchased, at least might serve some future purpose.
The ‘bay guys’, in case you were wondering, are two pilots from Northwest Airlines.
27.
trollhattan
Li’l Bitsy: 4,899. Somebody kick it up to 4,900, yes?
p.s. I luv koompooterz.
28.
theturtlemoves
Ok, I scrolled down and saw the rest of the saga and won’t mock you any more. Yeah, clean install is always the way to go. I wouldn’t ever recommend doing the upgrade thing and my ability to have heat, light, and food for my family rests partially on sales of Windows 7 (not my division, but we’re all one gigantic happy family). If you are really a masochist, might I recommend trying to install a dual-boot of some Linux distro now? Maybe one of those with the stupid names like Happy Hippopotamus or Tendentious Tapir.
29.
MikeJ
Rufus: 4850
Bitsy: 4899
30.
Sentient Puddle
I actually got my external drive to work with Vista after I got home from work today, so I started the backup in preparation for the upgrade.
…and it’s still going with no end in sight. I could’ve sworn that I barely had anything on this hard drive.
I suppose it also means I should get into the habit of backing my shit up.
31.
MikeJ
@theturtlemoves: Begging for trouble with a dual boot. Just run windows in a VM if you have to have it.
32.
MMM
That’s very interesting, John, and I think, very illuminating. There seems to be a definite pattern emerging. And, of course, this pattern, once isolated, can be coped with. Recognize the problem, and you are halfway on the road to its, uh, its solution. Uh, tell me, John, what do you do for fun? What activity gives you a different sense of enjoyment from the others? Uh, what do you find fulfilling? What gives you that… special satisfaction?
@Martin: The World Series match-up should be known by now, and it sucks that it is still TBD. On the other hand, it’ll be sweet for the Yanks to clinch at home. On the other other hand, I’m leaving NYC for the weekend so I won’t even get to celebrate in the city. No, I will not sleep well tonight.
@John Cole: Congrats! Let us know how Windows 7 works out before we all take the plunge too (I have a MacBook myself, but dual-booting is looking mighty tasty lately).
Eff the Angels.
34.
Mike in NC
You do not mess with Glenn Beck. The odds of him being installed as interim President have risen to 47%.
The odds of B.O.B. being installed in a rubber room have risen to 87%.
35.
Comrade Darkness
@Soylent Green: GAH, did we really dress like that in the 90s? It’s like a bad dream.
You do not mess with Glenn Beck. The odds of him being installed as interim President have risen to 47%.
BOB, you been hitting the bong water again?
37.
Marked Hoosier
Sigh. Got a call from the little brother. Seems while he was playing WoW on my mom’s computer, the thing crashed and now goes to blue screen during restart.
And I get to fix it. Oh how I love talking to Tech Support!!!
ugh.
38.
Beauzeaux
Incidentally, the odds of Brick Oven Bill being a spoof have risen to 958%.
@MMM: I bet at most, there might be one other person who knows that movie.
40.
Maus
Right about now is when Obama will read the riot act
in my fantasies, i guess.
41.
Brick Oven Bill
You will find, in your walks in life, Mark S., that most people do not give a shit. I cannot explain it.
Glenn Beck has the Oath Keepers for reasons of Logic and goose-bumps.
And thus his percentage has recently risen to 47%.
42.
Martin
So, before all the Microsoft haters get on a roll, we might want to investigate any possible issues between the chair and the keyboard. Seriously, what the hell took you so long?
Well, from what I’ve been hearing, the more generic your hardware/software setup the more reliable the 7 upgrade is.
If MS didn’t recognize this as a problem, they wouldn’t be selling Signature PCs, where they unbox the Dell/HP/Lenovo/etc PC that you want, wipe the drive, clean install Windows 7 and a software suite, and hand it back to you. MS has figured out that all of the OEM shit is fucking up their market – and they’re right.
The odds of him being installed as interim President have risen to 47%.
lollerskates!
The temporary menace is not the military-industrial complex. It is the dumbshit-educational system complex . Pronounced (D-Said).
It’s both, and allows people like you to graduate. Assuming you’ve graduated something, I apologize if not.
44.
Martin
On the other hand, it’ll be sweet for the Yanks to clinch at home.
It’ll be even sweeter to see the faces of the $1200 seat folks when the Angels win game 7.
45.
trollhattan
Yup, no sentient being is as relentlessly wrong as the bOb, and nobody who has polysyllables in their vocabulary considers Glenn Beck to be evolved past garden slugs.
QED
46.
General Winfield Stuck
The odds of him being installed as interim President have risen to 47%.
The Superstar of Planet Wingnut
47.
Sentient Puddle
@trollhattan: Don’t forget to include puddles as well as beings.
48.
Brick Oven Bill
‘I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, and now I am free.’
A line from a couple of lesbians. And you paid for my education Maus, ha, unfortunately Martin has been enabled to take his percentage.
49.
Martin
unfortunately Martin has been enabled to take his percentage.
Maybe with some bong water I could understand BOB.
50.
Brick Oven Bill
Correction:
Got my piece of paper and I was free.
51.
MMM
Everyone has the right to make an ass out of themselves. You just can’t let the world judge you too much.
52.
theturtlemoves
@Martin: Yeah, the OEM hardware and software can get pretty hideous. I used to work for one of those big guys and the crap we bundled along with the OS was extensive and annoying. All you had to do was look at the 20 icons sitting in your systray to know that maybe a few extra applications may have been installed at the factory. My first act whenever I bought a computer from the company was to completely format it and then re-install Windows completely clean, not using the recovery CDs, just the OS CD. Of course, now they ship everything with the OS, etc, stored on a locked partition of the hard drive, rather than on actual media, which makes that process harder. To say nothing of all the proprietary hardware, locked BIOS, etc. That’s why I only build my own these days…
If you are really a masochist, might I recommend trying to install a dual-boot of some Linux distro now? Maybe one of those with the stupid names like Happy Hippopotamus or Tendentious Tapir.
Personally, if I wanted to spend all day banging my head against the wall, I’d want to have to pay Microsoft anywhere between $135 and $210 for the, uh, pleasure.
Not download some other operating system for free.
@MNPundit: He spent the whole first paragraph saying why it was true and why Obama was being juvenile before sorta apologizing? Weak.
How is it “sorta apologizing”?
There’s no requirement that he like or approves of what Obama was doing, but he blasted the equivalency to Nixon that he made. That was the main issue here, and he even blasted it for the right reasons–what Nixon did was unconstitutional and illegal and there is no possible comparison with what Obama did.
FBI agents are now referring callers to Glenn Beck. You do not mess with Glenn Beck. The odds of him being installed as interim President have risen to 47%.
bobs been into the bongwater again
63.
Church Lady
I’m so very jealous.
64.
trollhattan
She’s not just another nurse, ma. It means a whole lot to me, ma. And I want you to know that if you mess this one up for me, I’m gonna punch your fuckin’ heart out. Got it?
Such a nice boy. Got a pecker this big.
65.
IndyLib
@John Cole: Harold and Maude, and I knew it before you put in the hints down thread.
66.
Brick Oven Bill
Barney Frank continuously refers to his male lover. I cannot, for the life of me, imagine how anyone could be sexually attracted to Barney Frank. How could a man become aroused by Barney? This is a matter of enlargement.
You know what the problem with his apology is, really? It’s that in trying to justify his “Nixonesque” comment he fails to flesh out the full context of where these WH attacks on Fox are coming from. To him it’s just about them “being childish,” arguably true. The problem is there’s no mention of why perhaps they took this tack, where the fact that the last Democratic President got accused of every damn scandal under the sun, not only by the wingnuts, by the mainstream press, including the good ole liberal NY Times. Then, when Bush came along and started sabre rattling, who was at the forefront cheerleading for war in Iraq? Yes, of course the wingnuts, but also our vaunted Grey Lady of the Left.
The point is, if our liberal media actually did its job of fact checking RW bullshit, maybe the Obama admin wouldn’t have to. I dunno, just a thought.
Barney Frank continuously refers to his male lover. I cannot, for the life of me, imagine how anyone could be sexually attracted to Barney Frank. How could a man become aroused by Barney? This is a matter of enlargement.
I am seeking enlightenment TattooSydney.
I understand you have a wife, Bob? Same thing.
72.
MikeJ
@handy: What “attacks”on Fox? They simply stated that Fox isn’t news, just an arm of the opposition. Is there any doubt that’s true?
They’ve not sicced the FCC on them, not kicked them out of the briefing room, not even refused them interviews. Simply pointed out that when they deal with the opposition it will be on the White House’s terms.
73.
Brick Oven Bill
Wives and Barney Frank are very similar. Enlargements are rare, although I can only speak of knowledge with wives.
To the Appalachian Trail.
I still cannot understand the arousal for of Barney’s lover for Barney. This guy is disgusting with his clothes on. I believe Barney is a bull-shitter.
But my point is, why doesn’t our liberal media fact check RW talking points? Why instead do we get this “Rally Around Our Brethrens” when clearly, as you said, Fox is an arm of the Republican Party? Even when he apologizes for going too far, Rudin still can’t go over the whole, “Hey Obama stop being a baby for attacking Fox” when I’m saying: Take a step back, reflect on the last 16 years, and ask yourself what is the real issue here.
75.
handy
To the Appalachian Trail.
By which you mean, going off to see your secret Argentinian lover?
Not to yuk it up at the expense of our host’s computer problems, I think John’s troubles today mirror America’s on the whole with our political and financial nervous system in this country.
Trying to fix things cheaply and simpler with an electoral upgrade is more trouble than it’s worth and causes untold aggravation, anxiety and massive FAIL. It NEVER works like it’s supposed to.
We need a clean install and a cold reboot. Of government and the banking system.
Cmon! You know you have a total closet lust for politicians who remind you of Buddy Hackett. Between the homophobia, the schizophrenia, and the overcompensating misogyny, it would be irresponsible not to speculate that you’re head over heels for mr Frank.
As a point of concern, are there any legislators that bear a resemblance to sid cesaer, Mickey Rooney, or Milton Berle? If so, can we warn them about BOB?
@theturtlemoves: I tried to upgrade rather than a clean install and the computer hung. Then, I had to go buy an external HD, because I did not trust the cd’s I burned using Windows Easy Transfer, and it took a few hours to burn a backup. Then, when I did a clean install, it worked fine.
80.
Yutsano
@John Cole: This must have you wired since you’re awake and still posting. Is Lily licking your feet wondering why you’re not in bed with her yet?
@Yutsano: I’m kind of compulsive about my home machine because it really has everything. The first thing I do when I move is set up my office box, and in fact I do not move anywhere until internet and power are up. So this not working kind of bothers me. I’m almost halfway done with the reinstall of shit that I need on an almost daily basis. Then tomorrow I do the macromedia, adobe, photoshop, respondus, etc.
Plus, I have nowhere to be until noon tomorrow, so I can be OCD on the computer.
How could a man become aroused by Barney? This is a matter of enlargement. I am seeking enlightenment TattooSydney.
Nine words Bob: He has a cock the size of your arm.
84.
Yutsano
@John Cole: Okay, just no falling asleep and faceplanting in the keyboard. I get the feeling Tunch might disown you if you had letters impressed into your forehead.
@Tattoosydney: I’d say DNFTT, but A) it’s BoB and it’s just too much fun and B) I’m pretty sure he’s fapping as we type.
85.
Brick Oven Bill
I have a long arm, and big feet Tattosydney. Barney is sit a nit-wit. Good night.
I can completely relate. To live without a computer in this day and age is to be a primal human that exists without fire. It is a priority and it needs to be rectified asap.
Also, I haven’t seen the Tao of Steve, even though I’m a veritable rain man of movies and pop culture, but it’s now #1 on my netflix queue.
88.
theturtlemoves
@John Cole: Don’t blame you if you had to span the disks to get the entire transfer file. Luckily, I have three physical hard drives in my system and one of them, which I didn’t have the OS on, is 1.5 TB, so I had plenty of room to store the Easy Transfer files. To upgrade my work machine and my wife’s laptop, I just stored the transfer files on that big machine and copied them back over the network once the install was done. I’ve gotten hosed enough times in the past to plan this stuff out pretty meticulously anymore.
Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons being assembled immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George
for preventing tumultuous and riotous assemblies. God save the King.
Finally an election where every vote counts! I can vote in 8 minutes! :)
cain
98.
Yutsano
@Tattoosydney: I have this eerie mental image of BoB. Moisture doesn’t exactly come into the picture. If at all possible I’d recommend a nice long hot shower. Emphasis on long.
99.
IndyLib
@John Cole:
A little late on the answer, but I think it’s from The Tao of Steve, yes?
I don’t even know what that means. And like I said, I haven’t seen the movie in question, but I’ve made arrangements for it. In the meantime, I have Mad Men to catch up on as well as the new BSG movie, The Plan. I’m hoping it doesn’t suck.
104.
MelodyMaker
@Yutsano:
Moist! Moisture, buddy. Hey didn’t you have a date last night? Conflict Diamond told me….
But dried out. and bigger, obviously.
Just watched Maddow and shit freekin’ frack, I can’t tolerate any more Cheney. That’s gonna put a dent in my usable sleepy time. shocking slime rewarded with applause. USA!
@freelancer:
The “duh” was for me because I hadn’t read through the thread or I would have realized John’s movie quote quiz question had been answered.
I can’t tolerate any more Cheney. That’s gonna put a dent in my usable sleepy time. shocking slime rewarded with applause. USA!
This shit is gonna piss me off tomorrow when I watch TRMS on my iTouch, I assure you. I’m glad I’m going to bed to something as soothing as 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Following on from a previous thread… more Tasmanian Devil babies.
110.
Ked
Oh wow, head off to Vegas for a week and get nifty comment edit buttons when I get back! Nifty.
Anyway, I haven’t read through all four threads of upgrade hell, but John, you seem to have made one massive mistake here. It’s a common one, and one that Microsoft has, over the years, encouraged users to make (though not quite as much with 7. I think.):
Simply put, you upgraded your computer to the latest OS. Yes, that’s a mistake in the Windows world. (The Mac world is completely different. I think they way they do things is complete horsepucky, but will admit it makes sense for users who deliberately refuse to learn about computers.)
Is it possible to do? In most cases, yes, though it’ll depend on your hardware and software and it can be hard to figure out ahead of time if there will be problems. As a trained professional, I’m usually leery of trying an OS upgrade – there are so many things which need to be considered and accounted for, and so many ways in which it can blow up, and there can be long-term stability issues which may not crop up right away… It’s not something an average user should be trying.
If you want the latest OS – and you’d be well-advised never to buy the latest OS until the first service pack arrives unless you like living the adventure – buy a new computer with that OS on it. I know that’s not the popular answer, but 95% of the grief associated with new OS’s (except Vista, where it was more like 60%) could be prevented if people just did that. “But Ked,” you say, “I don’t want a new computer!” That’s fine. Your old computer will continue to run well with its current OS. And when you eventually replace it – and perhaps going to the new OS will be a reason to get the replacement sooner – you’ll have the new OS. Maybe someday there will be a new OS which is so radically different, so radically improved that it truly is worth jumping an old PC to it, but I doubt it.
It’s just. Not. Worth. The grief.
…so why did John do it? Why did so many take the idiotic step of updating XP to Vista? Why were there people waiting in lines outside Best Buy for Windows 98?
I think it’s the intersection of American consumer culture (I want it all! And I want it now! And who are you to tell me that I’m making a mistake!) with the basic disrespect many users have for the very, very complex tangle of technologies which make a modern personal computer. A PC is the single most complicated device that any of us own. A distant second place is your car – but most people would never consider trying to swap the engine in their car, or painting it, or reupholstering it. I know people who will never drive their car on a gravel road, who obey the speed limit everywhere, who change their oil every three thousand miles or less… but connect them to the internet and they’ll engage in every possible unsafe behavior and then whine when the system becomes unusable.
Part of the reason things have gone this way has to do with Microsoft and other OS and software and even hardware companies. They want to sell to as many people as possible, so everything gets marketed with no regard for who and when it should really be bought. MS makes money when John buys an extra copy of Windows – in fact it makes a lot more money than when it sells an OEM copy with a new computer. There’s some concern at the corporate level for not wanting users to have a bad experience, but they’ve never bought commercial time to explain appropriate upgrade strategies. Hell, even beer companies do public-service ads these days telling people to drink responsibly, do the designated-driver thing, etc.
I will freely admit that Vista really does suck, and there may be more motivation to get away from it than with some past OS transitions. Windows 7, at least through the RTM, does seem to be faster and less cranky. But for the majority of users, I still think that doing it yourself is a losing proposition in terms of time, money, and long-term system stability. If you insist on upgrading, and are not a computer guru, find one to do it for you.
Ah, well. I have a week more of vacation, and it’s time to stop thinking about my job again. There will be plenty of disasters caused by ill-advised upgrades by our corporate customers to tend to when I finally go back.
I have this eerie mental image of BoB. Moisture doesn’t exactly come into the picture.
Just testing a theory – every time I flirt with BoB he deserts the thread…
112.
MikeJ
BTW, anybody have Question Time from last night? I wanted to watch the BNP guy but as always happens I’m on the wrong continent and iPlayer won’t show it outside the UK.
That’s exactly why I’ve ‘rolled my own’ desktop PC’s since 1996 after an unhappy experience with an IBM Aptiva 530 preloaded with so much crap and so little RAM that it hardly ran.
It’s nice to have a machine with only the software I want installed on it and not be forced to uninstall the Norton or McAfee bloatware that comes with most machines these days in order for it to actually be useful.
Laptops aren’t really something you can build yourself, so I chose Dell Latitudes.
I settled on Dell for laptops because Dell actually gives you an honest to goodness Windows install disc and application CD’s instead of a ‘recovery partition’ that restores your machine to the same bloated state it was right out of the box.
Plus Dell’s documentation makes disassembling and upgrading a laptop fairly simple compared to taking one apart without any manuals or diagrams.
The neat thing about my D820 is that I picked up the docking station and monitor stand on eBay for $60.
Between the Acronis disk backup/recovery software and the GigE connection between the docking station and my desktop with the laptop’s disc image stored on it, I can easily restore the entire Windows install in less than an hour.
As far as Win & goes ,I’ve got an upgrade disc coming in from Sam’s Club that I paid $50 for during the pre-order promotion MS held in June.
I’m probably going to hold off installing it though because next month I’m going to replace my current motherboard/memory/video card combo with something a little more current than the Gigabyte 965P/Core 2 Duo [email protected]/8800 GTS setup I’m currently running.
The only thing I’m really certain of at this point is that the new video card will be an ATI because the ACDSee photo manager software I use and nvidia’s drivers don’t play nice together.
Anyone have any advice?
Budget’s in the $800 range for the board, processor, RAM, and video card.
“upgrades” are total bs. As software/hardware tech I live by the canon that you either clean install the system and re-build or you spend an equal or greater amount of time trying to patch over holes in data that the OS has no clue is there in regards to third party apps. This will often happen when you are using Pro grade apps like Protools, After Effects, etc.
What clever people do when they know a new OS release is coming out is to clone their drive, back it up and then go forward.
117.
schrodinger's cat
Windows 7 Installed Successfully
That’s all well and good, but have Tunch needs been attended to?
@John Cole: That would be me then. I go back and forth about whether or not I think the protagonists are free spirits or just assholes, but I love the soundtrack at least.
Since I have to work for a living, and that means I have to use a Microsoft PC at some point, I will not laugh fiendishly.
However, when given a choice, I do use a Mac. ‘Cause.
And for those who say they have to pay more for a Mac, yes. It’s true.
And I had an eight year old clamshell Mac that was still running perfectly well, except I hadda have some software that only worked on OS X, and my laptop was right on the cusp of not being able to run that operating system.
I don’t know if this is part of the health care debate or not, but be prepared for a lot of MS Tourette’s cases.
MS Tourette’s is what happens when you try to use your PC or Microsoft software and it does something really stupid or puts up a totally unintelligible dialog box and the user lets loose a convulsive stream of profanity.
So at 5:47 AM, Mike J reported:
Bitsy: 4996
Rufus: 4969
And in much less time than a Windows upgrade:
Bitsy 5410
Rufus 5279
This Balloon-Juice consumer impact factor has to have some place in the BJ Media Kit. “Round-the-clock Readers” or something.
Haven’t actually ever worked on a Windows machine. Haven’t worked on a PC since 1992. There are Mac pockets out there where PC’s are an unknown, foreign language. (Self-employed, small creative businesses, that kind of thing.)
Ouch man 12 hours, I have installed 7 4 times 2 RC and 2 beta’s each install took less than 1 hr each. Just a note to all those macboys, my brand new 17inch macbook pro that I got weeks after snowleopard came out not only cost me money to get snowleopard, but the local genius bar was unable to get snowleopard installed at all. I reformatted and now run 7 on my macbook pro, amazing how everything just works don’t it?
127.
schrodinger's cat
@Sentient Puddle:
Shouldn’t it be:
Tunch’s needs? I think I am missing an apostrophe. So more like punctuation fail.
128.
Alex
Just remember, that’s a feature, not a bug.
129.
Sentient Puddle
@schrodinger’s cat: Me, I read Tunch as an adjective, which pretty much makes it mean all the same thing. It’s only grammatically incorrect if you’re concerned with how you’re saying it.
130.
schrodinger's cat
@Sentient Puddle: Yes, I guess you could read it that way too.
Comments are closed.
Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!
Martin
Should be much more enjoyable now that the Yankees have lost.
robertdsc
No Clown Shoes tag in honor of Microsoft?
Anne Laurie
@robertdsc:
I think somebody was trying to avoid charges of self-mockery.
freelancer (itouch)
So I take it that the 7 stands for the 7 hours you spend installing, panicking, cursing and generally praying for nuclear holocaust after you decide to upgrade?
ellaesther
Because it bears repeating (and is actually on-topic):
Randall Munroe, on the troubles you have seen.
(Thanks again, Llelldorin, for finding it for me!)
Zam
Gratz?
Phoenix Woman
Get some sleep, John!
arguingwithsignposts
Can you do a clean install of a soul in some of the members of the U.S. Senate (Nelson, Conrad, etc., and the entire Republican side of the aisle)?
General Winfield Stuck
Bravo Senor Cole, Now give Tunch and Lily a treat and to celebrate this victory.
General Winfield Stuck
@arguingwithsignposts:
I wouldn’t worry too much. Right about now is when Obama will read the riot act to these wobbly congress creatures to vote yes on cloture and no on passage if they desire. Make them an offer they can’t refuse. Or, you obstruct an up or down vote on the Marquee issue of the Democratic party, may gawd have mercy on yer soul, cause the Presnit will own your asses. They have no where to go but the GOP if they do that, and what choice is that? But the PO will be an opt out, I suspect.
Mike in NC
Don’t you feel better now that you’ve helped pay for another solid gold doorknob in Bill Gates’ 300 room mansion?
JHF
I have to tell you that I just upgraded my MacBook to Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.1) and synced my bookmarks, system settings, address book, email, and I don’t know what-all from my iMac via MobileMe to the MacBook. Totally flawless all the way around. Then I cloned both the buggers, hah!
This stuff just works.
Good luck, compadre.
MNPundit
Hey, NPR’s Rudin apologized.
Media Matters says so.
Perhaps you should post something since he was blasted on the front page? You know, letting people give to NPR again? I mean it was DougJ but it’s still YOUR blog.
mcd
Up or down vote, Muthas
Comrade Darkness
@Mike in NC: There’s an even better way to say that. With this lolpic.
Mark S.
Geez, John, you’ve had a great week.
Mark S.
@General Winfield Stuck:
How bout one of those Orangeades and Sprites?
Soylent Green
Wait till you see the latest Mac guy vs. PC guy commercial airing today, “It’s not going to have any of the problems (fill in blank with OS going back to Win 95) had, trust me.”
theturtlemoves
No offense dude, but if it really took you twelve hours to do a Windows 7 installation… damn. It took me two hours to do one that included installation and configuration of Office 2010 beta and re-joining the corporate domain remotely. So, before all the Microsoft haters get on a roll, we might want to investigate any possible issues between the chair and the keyboard. Seriously, what the hell took you so long?
John Cole
@JHF: Yeah- the snow leopard upgrade was super easy.
In fairness, I should have known better than to try the upgrade rather than a clean install. I went through this hell about ten years ago trying to upgrade and ended up just doing a full install.
One nice thing- Windows Seven seems faster than Vista, and a little more intuitive. Almost, dare I say, a little more Mac like. Plus, it recognized my video card and autodownloaded the drivers, as well as a number of other things. In fact, the only thing it seems I will have to download is my Cyberpower battery backup.
Again, other than a few hiccups at first, I loved Vista. Thought it was really nice. The only reason I am upgrading now is because where I work we will be buying new computers and someone has to know the ins and outs of Seven. That someone is me.
Soylent Green
Linky for previous.
asiangrrlMN
@MNPundit: He spent the whole first paragraph saying why it was true and why Obama was being juvenile before sorta apologizing? Weak.
MikeJ
Fuck ’em. Let him show up in person and ask for forgiveness.
SiubhanDuinne
@MNPundit. That was a good apology, and full marks to Rudin. None of the customary “I-apologize-if-anyone-was-offended” crap. It sounds sincere.
But you know, this is NPR’s beg-a-thon week, and I can’t help wondering if they heard from listeners who were offended by Rudin’s original comparison, who said they would not be providing financial support and here’s why. Maybe NPR nudged him a little? You think?
The Other Steve
I have three computers to upgrade this weekend. Our media center PC, the upstairs desktop and my laptop.
Brick Oven Bill
Stop playing the victim John Cole.
FBI agents are now referring callers to Glenn Beck. You do not mess with Glenn Beck. The odds of him being installed as interim President have risen to 47%.
LauraW, this is your chance to be a part on the future. ‘Glenn’.
The temporary menace is not the military-industrial complex. It is the dumbshit-educational system complex . Pronounced (D-Said).
“Pay me good money and I will close the achievement gap.” That military hardware we purchased, at least might serve some future purpose.
The ‘bay guys’, in case you were wondering, are two pilots from Northwest Airlines.
trollhattan
Li’l Bitsy: 4,899. Somebody kick it up to 4,900, yes?
p.s. I luv koompooterz.
theturtlemoves
Ok, I scrolled down and saw the rest of the saga and won’t mock you any more. Yeah, clean install is always the way to go. I wouldn’t ever recommend doing the upgrade thing and my ability to have heat, light, and food for my family rests partially on sales of Windows 7 (not my division, but we’re all one gigantic happy family). If you are really a masochist, might I recommend trying to install a dual-boot of some Linux distro now? Maybe one of those with the stupid names like Happy Hippopotamus or Tendentious Tapir.
MikeJ
Rufus: 4850
Bitsy: 4899
Sentient Puddle
I actually got my external drive to work with Vista after I got home from work today, so I started the backup in preparation for the upgrade.
…and it’s still going with no end in sight. I could’ve sworn that I barely had anything on this hard drive.
I suppose it also means I should get into the habit of backing my shit up.
MikeJ
@theturtlemoves: Begging for trouble with a dual boot. Just run windows in a VM if you have to have it.
MMM
That’s very interesting, John, and I think, very illuminating. There seems to be a definite pattern emerging. And, of course, this pattern, once isolated, can be coped with. Recognize the problem, and you are halfway on the road to its, uh, its solution. Uh, tell me, John, what do you do for fun? What activity gives you a different sense of enjoyment from the others? Uh, what do you find fulfilling? What gives you that… special satisfaction?
parksideq
@Martin: The World Series match-up should be known by now, and it sucks that it is still TBD. On the other hand, it’ll be sweet for the Yanks to clinch at home. On the other other hand, I’m leaving NYC for the weekend so I won’t even get to celebrate in the city. No, I will not sleep well tonight.
@John Cole: Congrats! Let us know how Windows 7 works out before we all take the plunge too (I have a MacBook myself, but dual-booting is looking mighty tasty lately).
Eff the Angels.
Mike in NC
The odds of B.O.B. being installed in a rubber room have risen to 87%.
Comrade Darkness
@Soylent Green: GAH, did we really dress like that in the 90s? It’s like a bad dream.
Mark S.
@Brick Oven Bill:
BOB, you been hitting the bong water again?
Marked Hoosier
Sigh. Got a call from the little brother. Seems while he was playing WoW on my mom’s computer, the thing crashed and now goes to blue screen during restart.
And I get to fix it. Oh how I love talking to Tech Support!!!
ugh.
Beauzeaux
Incidentally, the odds of Brick Oven Bill being a spoof have risen to 958%.
John Cole
@MMM: I bet at most, there might be one other person who knows that movie.
Maus
in my fantasies, i guess.
Brick Oven Bill
You will find, in your walks in life, Mark S., that most people do not give a shit. I cannot explain it.
Glenn Beck has the Oath Keepers for reasons of Logic and goose-bumps.
And thus his percentage has recently risen to 47%.
Martin
Well, from what I’ve been hearing, the more generic your hardware/software setup the more reliable the 7 upgrade is.
If MS didn’t recognize this as a problem, they wouldn’t be selling Signature PCs, where they unbox the Dell/HP/Lenovo/etc PC that you want, wipe the drive, clean install Windows 7 and a software suite, and hand it back to you. MS has figured out that all of the OEM shit is fucking up their market – and they’re right.
Maus
@Brick Oven Bill:
lollerskates!
It’s both, and allows people like you to graduate. Assuming you’ve graduated something, I apologize if not.
Martin
It’ll be even sweeter to see the faces of the $1200 seat folks when the Angels win game 7.
trollhattan
Yup, no sentient being is as relentlessly wrong as the bOb, and nobody who has polysyllables in their vocabulary considers Glenn Beck to be evolved past garden slugs.
QED
General Winfield Stuck
The Superstar of Planet Wingnut
Sentient Puddle
@trollhattan: Don’t forget to include puddles as well as beings.
Brick Oven Bill
‘I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, and now I am free.’
A line from a couple of lesbians. And you paid for my education Maus, ha, unfortunately Martin has been enabled to take his percentage.
Martin
Maybe with some bong water I could understand BOB.
Brick Oven Bill
Correction:
Got my piece of paper and I was free.
MMM
Everyone has the right to make an ass out of themselves. You just can’t let the world judge you too much.
theturtlemoves
@Martin: Yeah, the OEM hardware and software can get pretty hideous. I used to work for one of those big guys and the crap we bundled along with the OS was extensive and annoying. All you had to do was look at the 20 icons sitting in your systray to know that maybe a few extra applications may have been installed at the factory. My first act whenever I bought a computer from the company was to completely format it and then re-install Windows completely clean, not using the recovery CDs, just the OS CD. Of course, now they ship everything with the OS, etc, stored on a locked partition of the hard drive, rather than on actual media, which makes that process harder. To say nothing of all the proprietary hardware, locked BIOS, etc. That’s why I only build my own these days…
eco2geek
@theturtlemoves:
Personally, if I wanted to spend all day banging my head against the wall, I’d want to have to pay Microsoft anywhere between $135 and $210 for the, uh, pleasure.
Not download some other operating system for free.
General Winfield Stuck
@MMM:
Are you sprinkling Kryptonite on BoBs Pizza?
John Cole
@MMM: Harold! That was your last date!
John Cole
Refund? Refund?
also…
Don’t forget to punch the clock shorty!
General Winfield Stuck
Ruth Gordon RIP
El Cid
The odds of Mark Levin being installed as President just rose to 54%, in my head.
BethanyAnne
@ellaesther: hehehe, that’s great :-)
Tattoosydney
@Brick Oven Bill:
BoB, you sexy beast… when you use words like that it makes me all tingly in my lower parts.
MNPundit
@asiangrrlMN:
How is it “sorta apologizing”?
There’s no requirement that he like or approves of what Obama was doing, but he blasted the equivalency to Nixon that he made. That was the main issue here, and he even blasted it for the right reasons–what Nixon did was unconstitutional and illegal and there is no possible comparison with what Obama did.
freelancer (itouch)
@Brick Oven Bill:
bobs been into the bongwater again
Church Lady
I’m so very jealous.
trollhattan
She’s not just another nurse, ma. It means a whole lot to me, ma. And I want you to know that if you mess this one up for me, I’m gonna punch your fuckin’ heart out. Got it?
Such a nice boy. Got a pecker this big.
IndyLib
@John Cole:
Harold and Maude, and I knew it before you put in the hints down thread.
Brick Oven Bill
Barney Frank continuously refers to his male lover. I cannot, for the life of me, imagine how anyone could be sexually attracted to Barney Frank. How could a man become aroused by Barney? This is a matter of enlargement.
I am seeking enlightenment TattooSydney.
John Cole
@IndyLib: Here is one for you then- from another one of my favorite movies:
What do you look for in a woman?
Uh… Low Standards.
handy
@MNPundit:
You know what the problem with his apology is, really? It’s that in trying to justify his “Nixonesque” comment he fails to flesh out the full context of where these WH attacks on Fox are coming from. To him it’s just about them “being childish,” arguably true. The problem is there’s no mention of why perhaps they took this tack, where the fact that the last Democratic President got accused of every damn scandal under the sun, not only by the wingnuts, by the mainstream press, including the good ole liberal NY Times. Then, when Bush came along and started sabre rattling, who was at the forefront cheerleading for war in Iraq? Yes, of course the wingnuts, but also our vaunted Grey Lady of the Left.
The point is, if our liberal media actually did its job of fact checking RW bullshit, maybe the Obama admin wouldn’t have to. I dunno, just a thought.
John Cole
WTF- so apparently there are conservative horror movies.
Tattoosydney
@Brick Oven Bill:
What, no response? You always used to flirt with me when you thought I was a girl, Bob!
Tattoosydney
@Brick Oven Bill:
I understand you have a wife, Bob? Same thing.
MikeJ
@handy: What “attacks”on Fox? They simply stated that Fox isn’t news, just an arm of the opposition. Is there any doubt that’s true?
They’ve not sicced the FCC on them, not kicked them out of the briefing room, not even refused them interviews. Simply pointed out that when they deal with the opposition it will be on the White House’s terms.
Brick Oven Bill
Wives and Barney Frank are very similar. Enlargements are rare, although I can only speak of knowledge with wives.
To the Appalachian Trail.
I still cannot understand the arousal for of Barney’s lover for Barney. This guy is disgusting with his clothes on. I believe Barney is a bull-shitter.
He should not have power.
handy
@MikeJ:
But my point is, why doesn’t our liberal media fact check RW talking points? Why instead do we get this “Rally Around Our Brethrens” when clearly, as you said, Fox is an arm of the Republican Party? Even when he apologizes for going too far, Rudin still can’t go over the whole, “Hey Obama stop being a baby for attacking Fox” when I’m saying: Take a step back, reflect on the last 16 years, and ask yourself what is the real issue here.
handy
By which you mean, going off to see your secret Argentinian lover?
Tattoosydney
@Brick Oven Bill:
I’ve said it before BoB – you are Dada embodied.
Fulcanelli
Not to yuk it up at the expense of our host’s computer problems, I think John’s troubles today mirror America’s on the whole with our political and financial nervous system in this country.
Trying to fix things cheaply and simpler with an electoral upgrade is more trouble than it’s worth and causes untold aggravation, anxiety and massive FAIL. It NEVER works like it’s supposed to.
We need a clean install and a cold reboot. Of government and the banking system.
freelancer (itouch)
@Brick Oven Bill:
Cmon! You know you have a total closet lust for politicians who remind you of Buddy Hackett. Between the homophobia, the schizophrenia, and the overcompensating misogyny, it would be irresponsible not to speculate that you’re head over heels for mr Frank.
As a point of concern, are there any legislators that bear a resemblance to sid cesaer, Mickey Rooney, or Milton Berle? If so, can we warn them about BOB?
John Cole
@theturtlemoves: I tried to upgrade rather than a clean install and the computer hung. Then, I had to go buy an external HD, because I did not trust the cd’s I burned using Windows Easy Transfer, and it took a few hours to burn a backup. Then, when I did a clean install, it worked fine.
Yutsano
@John Cole: This must have you wired since you’re awake and still posting. Is Lily licking your feet wondering why you’re not in bed with her yet?
eco2geek
@Brick Oven Bill:
Wow, for a moment there, it felt like I was on a bad acid trip. Without the acid.
John Cole
@Yutsano: I’m kind of compulsive about my home machine because it really has everything. The first thing I do when I move is set up my office box, and in fact I do not move anywhere until internet and power are up. So this not working kind of bothers me. I’m almost halfway done with the reinstall of shit that I need on an almost daily basis. Then tomorrow I do the macromedia, adobe, photoshop, respondus, etc.
Plus, I have nowhere to be until noon tomorrow, so I can be OCD on the computer.
Tattoosydney
@Brick Oven Bill:
Nine words Bob: He has a cock the size of your arm.
Yutsano
@John Cole: Okay, just no falling asleep and faceplanting in the keyboard. I get the feeling Tunch might disown you if you had letters impressed into your forehead.
@Tattoosydney: I’d say DNFTT, but A) it’s BoB and it’s just too much fun and B) I’m pretty sure he’s fapping as we type.
Brick Oven Bill
I have a long arm, and big feet Tattosydney. Barney is sit a nit-wit. Good night.
Tattoosydney
@Yutsano:
I’m trying to recapture the magic that BoB and I briefly had when he thought I was a young Australian woman who was susceptible to his charms…
freelancer (itouch)
@John Cole:
I can completely relate. To live without a computer in this day and age is to be a primal human that exists without fire. It is a priority and it needs to be rectified asap.
Also, I haven’t seen the Tao of Steve, even though I’m a veritable rain man of movies and pop culture, but it’s now #1 on my netflix queue.
theturtlemoves
@John Cole: Don’t blame you if you had to span the disks to get the entire transfer file. Luckily, I have three physical hard drives in my system and one of them, which I didn’t have the OS on, is 1.5 TB, so I had plenty of room to store the Easy Transfer files. To upgrade my work machine and my wife’s laptop, I just stored the transfer files on that big machine and copied them back over the network once the install was done. I’ve gotten hosed enough times in the past to plan this stuff out pretty meticulously anymore.
Tattoosydney
@Brick Oven Bill:
In my world, that’s a chat up line, BoB.
Yutsano
@Tattoosydney: Was he really all that far off?
See what wifey misses out on by crashing early?
joel hanes
Tattoosydney
@Yutsano:
True. There’s something about that wildly irrational wingnut that’s just so… so…. moistening.
Tattoosydney
@Tattoosydney:
Urgh. Went too far even for me. I feel a little ill.
Cain
@MikeJ:
We sure missed the election haven’t we? I’m waiting for a post from Nate Silver on Bitsy’s chances.
cain
burnspbesq
I swear I’m not making this up.
There is actually a chain of temporary employment agencies in Germany called Arbeit Macht Sexy.
How do you say “epic irony FAIL” in German?
BTW, Fleck et al were teh awesome. And the Yankees still suck.
MikeJ
Update:
Rufus: 4899
Bitsy: 4940
Cain
@MikeJ:
Finally an election where every vote counts! I can vote in 8 minutes! :)
cain
Yutsano
@Tattoosydney: I have this eerie mental image of BoB. Moisture doesn’t exactly come into the picture. If at all possible I’d recommend a nice long hot shower. Emphasis on long.
IndyLib
@John Cole:
A little late on the answer, but I think it’s from The Tao of Steve, yes?
freelancer
@IndyLib:
ummmm, yeah.
IndyLib
@freelancer:
Well, duh, I know better than to answer someone without reading through the rest of the thread.
Mark S.
4960. This competition is longer than the Stanley Cup playoffs.
freelancer
@IndyLib:
I don’t even know what that means. And like I said, I haven’t seen the movie in question, but I’ve made arrangements for it. In the meantime, I have Mad Men to catch up on as well as the new BSG movie, The Plan. I’m hoping it doesn’t suck.
MelodyMaker
@Yutsano:
Moist! Moisture, buddy. Hey didn’t you have a date last night? Conflict Diamond told me….
But dried out. and bigger, obviously.
Just watched Maddow and shit freekin’ frack, I can’t tolerate any more Cheney. That’s gonna put a dent in my usable sleepy time. shocking slime rewarded with applause. USA!
Zuzu's Petals
Maybe more apropos of the bong thread…
Soupy Sales, RIP
IndyLib
@freelancer:
The “duh” was for me because I hadn’t read through the thread or I would have realized John’s movie quote quiz question had been answered.
MelodyMaker
@John Cole:
that’s hilarious. sorry. no offense. just.
freelancer
@MelodyMaker:
This shit is gonna piss me off tomorrow when I watch TRMS on my iTouch, I assure you. I’m glad I’m going to bed to something as soothing as 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Tattoosydney
Following on from a previous thread… more Tasmanian Devil babies.
Ked
Oh wow, head off to Vegas for a week and get nifty comment edit buttons when I get back! Nifty.
Anyway, I haven’t read through all four threads of upgrade hell, but John, you seem to have made one massive mistake here. It’s a common one, and one that Microsoft has, over the years, encouraged users to make (though not quite as much with 7. I think.):
Simply put, you upgraded your computer to the latest OS. Yes, that’s a mistake in the Windows world. (The Mac world is completely different. I think they way they do things is complete horsepucky, but will admit it makes sense for users who deliberately refuse to learn about computers.)
Is it possible to do? In most cases, yes, though it’ll depend on your hardware and software and it can be hard to figure out ahead of time if there will be problems. As a trained professional, I’m usually leery of trying an OS upgrade – there are so many things which need to be considered and accounted for, and so many ways in which it can blow up, and there can be long-term stability issues which may not crop up right away… It’s not something an average user should be trying.
If you want the latest OS – and you’d be well-advised never to buy the latest OS until the first service pack arrives unless you like living the adventure – buy a new computer with that OS on it. I know that’s not the popular answer, but 95% of the grief associated with new OS’s (except Vista, where it was more like 60%) could be prevented if people just did that. “But Ked,” you say, “I don’t want a new computer!” That’s fine. Your old computer will continue to run well with its current OS. And when you eventually replace it – and perhaps going to the new OS will be a reason to get the replacement sooner – you’ll have the new OS. Maybe someday there will be a new OS which is so radically different, so radically improved that it truly is worth jumping an old PC to it, but I doubt it.
It’s just. Not. Worth. The grief.
…so why did John do it? Why did so many take the idiotic step of updating XP to Vista? Why were there people waiting in lines outside Best Buy for Windows 98?
I think it’s the intersection of American consumer culture (I want it all! And I want it now! And who are you to tell me that I’m making a mistake!) with the basic disrespect many users have for the very, very complex tangle of technologies which make a modern personal computer. A PC is the single most complicated device that any of us own. A distant second place is your car – but most people would never consider trying to swap the engine in their car, or painting it, or reupholstering it. I know people who will never drive their car on a gravel road, who obey the speed limit everywhere, who change their oil every three thousand miles or less… but connect them to the internet and they’ll engage in every possible unsafe behavior and then whine when the system becomes unusable.
Part of the reason things have gone this way has to do with Microsoft and other OS and software and even hardware companies. They want to sell to as many people as possible, so everything gets marketed with no regard for who and when it should really be bought. MS makes money when John buys an extra copy of Windows – in fact it makes a lot more money than when it sells an OEM copy with a new computer. There’s some concern at the corporate level for not wanting users to have a bad experience, but they’ve never bought commercial time to explain appropriate upgrade strategies. Hell, even beer companies do public-service ads these days telling people to drink responsibly, do the designated-driver thing, etc.
I will freely admit that Vista really does suck, and there may be more motivation to get away from it than with some past OS transitions. Windows 7, at least through the RTM, does seem to be faster and less cranky. But for the majority of users, I still think that doing it yourself is a losing proposition in terms of time, money, and long-term system stability. If you insist on upgrading, and are not a computer guru, find one to do it for you.
Ah, well. I have a week more of vacation, and it’s time to stop thinking about my job again. There will be plenty of disasters caused by ill-advised upgrades by our corporate customers to tend to when I finally go back.
Tattoosydney
@Yutsano:
Just testing a theory – every time I flirt with BoB he deserts the thread…
MikeJ
BTW, anybody have Question Time from last night? I wanted to watch the BNP guy but as always happens I’m on the wrong continent and iPlayer won’t show it outside the UK.
Obama Death Panel Chairman (formerly glocksman)
@Martin:
That’s exactly why I’ve ‘rolled my own’ desktop PC’s since 1996 after an unhappy experience with an IBM Aptiva 530 preloaded with so much crap and so little RAM that it hardly ran.
It’s nice to have a machine with only the software I want installed on it and not be forced to uninstall the Norton or McAfee bloatware that comes with most machines these days in order for it to actually be useful.
Laptops aren’t really something you can build yourself, so I chose Dell Latitudes.
I settled on Dell for laptops because Dell actually gives you an honest to goodness Windows install disc and application CD’s instead of a ‘recovery partition’ that restores your machine to the same bloated state it was right out of the box.
Plus Dell’s documentation makes disassembling and upgrading a laptop fairly simple compared to taking one apart without any manuals or diagrams.
The neat thing about my D820 is that I picked up the docking station and monitor stand on eBay for $60.
Between the Acronis disk backup/recovery software and the GigE connection between the docking station and my desktop with the laptop’s disc image stored on it, I can easily restore the entire Windows install in less than an hour.
As far as Win & goes ,I’ve got an upgrade disc coming in from Sam’s Club that I paid $50 for during the pre-order promotion MS held in June.
I’m probably going to hold off installing it though because next month I’m going to replace my current motherboard/memory/video card combo with something a little more current than the Gigabyte 965P/Core 2 Duo [email protected]/8800 GTS setup I’m currently running.
The only thing I’m really certain of at this point is that the new video card will be an ATI because the ACDSee photo manager software I use and nvidia’s drivers don’t play nice together.
Anyone have any advice?
Budget’s in the $800 range for the board, processor, RAM, and video card.
MikeJ
Bitsy: 4996
Rufus: 4969
BethanyAnne
@Obama Death Panel Chairman (formerly glocksman): I’m partial to Ars Technica’s guides. Here’s the one for the Budget Box:
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/guides/2009/04/ars-technica-system-guide-april-2009-edition.ars
Beth
RememberNovember
“upgrades” are total bs. As software/hardware tech I live by the canon that you either clean install the system and re-build or you spend an equal or greater amount of time trying to patch over holes in data that the OS has no clue is there in regards to third party apps. This will often happen when you are using Pro grade apps like Protools, After Effects, etc.
What clever people do when they know a new OS release is coming out is to clone their drive, back it up and then go forward.
schrodinger's cat
That’s all well and good, but have Tunch needs been attended to?
schrodinger's cat
@schrodinger’s cat:
Oops grammar fail, I guess I need some coffee.
Sentient Puddle
@schrodinger’s cat: Looks grammatically correct. You might get purists giving you hell for the passive, though.
zzyzx
@John Cole: That would be me then. I go back and forth about whether or not I think the protagonists are free spirits or just assholes, but I love the soundtrack at least.
WereBear
Since I have to work for a living, and that means I have to use a Microsoft PC at some point, I will not laugh fiendishly.
However, when given a choice, I do use a Mac. ‘Cause.
And for those who say they have to pay more for a Mac, yes. It’s true.
And I had an eight year old clamshell Mac that was still running perfectly well, except I hadda have some software that only worked on OS X, and my laptop was right on the cusp of not being able to run that operating system.
So I think you get what you pay for.
dan robinson
I don’t know if this is part of the health care debate or not, but be prepared for a lot of MS Tourette’s cases.
MS Tourette’s is what happens when you try to use your PC or Microsoft software and it does something really stupid or puts up a totally unintelligible dialog box and the user lets loose a convulsive stream of profanity.
I get it at work sometimes.
bago
In light of the recent OS kerfluffle, I give you Torvalds and Windows, together at last.
MazeDancer
So at 5:47 AM, Mike J reported:
Bitsy: 4996
Rufus: 4969
And in much less time than a Windows upgrade:
Bitsy 5410
Rufus 5279
This Balloon-Juice consumer impact factor has to have some place in the BJ Media Kit. “Round-the-clock Readers” or something.
Haven’t actually ever worked on a Windows machine. Haven’t worked on a PC since 1992. There are Mac pockets out there where PC’s are an unknown, foreign language. (Self-employed, small creative businesses, that kind of thing.)
terry chay
http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/
The latest three ads are relevant.
I missed a chance on launch night to get a free copy of Windows 7 at a Microsoft-sponsored party. Oh well, if I ever need one for a VMWare image, there is always: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/22/how-to-throw-a-windows-7-torrenting-party-without-getting-arrested/
;-)
Trevor B
Ouch man 12 hours, I have installed 7 4 times 2 RC and 2 beta’s each install took less than 1 hr each. Just a note to all those macboys, my brand new 17inch macbook pro that I got weeks after snowleopard came out not only cost me money to get snowleopard, but the local genius bar was unable to get snowleopard installed at all. I reformatted and now run 7 on my macbook pro, amazing how everything just works don’t it?
schrodinger's cat
@Sentient Puddle:
Shouldn’t it be:
Tunch’s needs? I think I am missing an apostrophe. So more like punctuation fail.
Alex
Just remember, that’s a feature, not a bug.
Sentient Puddle
@schrodinger’s cat: Me, I read Tunch as an adjective, which pretty much makes it mean all the same thing. It’s only grammatically incorrect if you’re concerned with how you’re saying it.
schrodinger's cat
@Sentient Puddle: Yes, I guess you could read it that way too.