Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

I was promised a recession.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

You cannot shame the shameless.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Republicans in disarray!

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

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Reader Interactions

160Comments

  3. 3.

    Len

    I don’t understand. If you’ve never had a problem with Vista, why would you be taking a chance on W7? I’ve never had a problem with Vista, either, and will not be “upgrading” unless someone twists my arm behind my back and makes me.

  4. 4.

    Zam

    I heard Windows 7 was actually a plot by ACORN to silence dissenting voices by infecting conservatives computers.

  5. 5.

    Bucky

    Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

    I wish I could wager on things like “John Cole will put up an ‘I Hate Microsoft’ post in 3 hours.

    Vegas has taken the odds off the board.

  9. 9.

    r€nato

    For those of you who enjoy humor at Microsuck’s expense, the comments here are full of win

    For what it is worth, even though I am a total Apple devotee, I do hear that Win 7 is actually pretty decent. Too bad Microsuck made all those people pay for Vista, which was basically betaware. If Microsuck cared about their customers, they would give a free copy of Win7 to everyone who paid for Vista.

  10. 10.

    Midnight Marauder

    Never had a problem with Vista

    There is not a chance in hell that this is true.

    @r€nato:

    If Microsuck cared about their customers, they would give a free copy of Win7 to everyone who paid for Vista.

    This. A million times over.

  11. 11.

    r€nato

    (I should have mentioned, the link is to a story about a Burger King Windows 7 Whopper in Japan. It has 7 patties of meat. I think my heart seized up just writing that last sentence.)

  12. 12.

    r€nato

    @Midnight Marauder:

    oh, it *could* be true.

    …if you bought a top-of-the-line PC with Vista pre-installed and you were diligent about anti-virus protection and staying on top of the numerous updates required to keep Windows from being as insecure as leaving your home’s doors and windows wide open when you go on vacation.

  13. 13.

    Violet

    Vista is teh suck. But I don’t trust Microsoft’s updates either. What to do, what to do… Good luck, John. Let us know how it goes from your Mac that you have to go buy when the update fries your hard drive.

    Yay, Bitsy!

  14. 14.

    r€nato

    I got bad news for Steve Ballmer:

    all those people you pissed off with Vista, who went over to Apple… they ain’t coming back. I don’t care how good Win 7 is.

    It is not uncommon to hear of people making the switch from PC to Mac.

    I have NEVER heard of ANYBODY switching from Mac to PC.

    Need I say more?

    (oh JC, you’re going to be so sorry you got the Mac-PC flamewars reignited!)

  16. 16.

    Zifnab

    @Rekster:

    Been running Mac OS X Commador 64 for many years, haven’t had the problems I read about with Vista/Windoze.

    Macs Suck!

    If you’re going to deal with an obnoxious OS that needs half a dozen emulators to function properly, at least have the decency to go with Linux.

  18. 18.

    Zifnab

    @r€nato:

    I have NEVER heard of ANYBODY switching from Mac to PC.

    My sister gave up on her Apple laptop and is now happily working away at her Windows Netbook. Admittedly, the netbook has the tried and true Windows XP, not the clusterfuck Vista. But there you go. Consider yourself having heard it.

    On a slightly archaic note, I gave up on Apple computers back in 1988, when I realized I wanted a computer that could run applications not also made in Steve Jobs’s garage. I’ve flirted with Apple on and off for years, but the only OS that’s ever gotten serious with me – except for a brief stint with Linux while I was experimenting in college – has been Windows. So, yeah. Two.

  21. 21.

    r€nato

    @Zifnab: Zif, you clearly know even more about confusers than I, but I must say that Linux pretty much is not an option for the average person who is not computer-savvy.

    Likewise, the only person I know who is as much pro-Microsoft as I am pro-Apple, is a total hardware geek. I have had a tremendously difficult time explaining to him that 95+% of the general computing population, do not possess the expertise to run and maintain Windows PCs. It might be right choice for him, but the vast majority of PC users quietly make do and suffer with their choice of operating systems.

  23. 23.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    Our IT guy has been testing Windows 7 for awhile now and he says it’s excellent – fast and stable.

    I can’t wait to hear your review. I’m a gamer so I want to know how DirectX 11 performs.

    For reference, what’s your pc specs? CPU, GPU(sli’d), memory, mobo, etc.

    Btw, does anyone here have a liquid cooling system? I’m thinking of having my brother install one but the whole concept just leaves me nervous. But I really have to do something to bring my temps down. 1600×1200 makes games look teh awesome but you could bake a meatloaf in my case.

  25. 25.

    Redshirt

    I might switch back from a Mac to a PC. I’m in the market for a new laptop for home, been using a macbook pro for 5 years now, with no major complaints. BUT! I cannot stand the insufferable “I’m a Mac” ad campaign, and the underlying premise: Oh, everything just works with Macs, there’s never any problems, rainbows fall out of the widgets……

    Probably will still go with a new Macbook pro, since I know for a fact you can run a fully functional version of Windows within it (and the opposite cannot be said to be true), and their hardware cannot be beat.

  26. 26.

    GReynoldsCT00

    Pulled the lever for Bitsy.

    Managed to avoid using Vista at work (we wait until software is fine-tuned before upgrading) and at home switched to Mac, which has been bliss. Snow Leopard update was a breeze. May the Force be with you John.

    And how about some pets?

  27. 27.

    Tom G

    Just recently got a new laptop.
    Planning to wipe Vista from it and replace with a Linux distribution. I’ve done this before on several machines and know what I’m doing. Never had problems using Linux.

    It’s not something I’d push on the timid, though.

  28. 28.

    Jeffrey D Johnson

    Vista isn’t that bad. The bulk of the problems everybody goes on and on about fall into one of two categories: those that were taken care of with the first Service Pack, and those that amount to a complete misunderstanding of how Vista deals with hardware differently than previous offerings. They certainly shouldn’t have released until the real problems were fixed, but you can’t really blame Microsoft because 10 million PC users don’t understand kernel memory allocation. That being said, I hear very nice things about Windows 7 from people who actually do understand kernel memory allocation.

    @r€nato: I bought a MacBook a few years ago because I was bored and I only managed to last a few months before I replaced it with a PC. It’s entirely anecdotal evidence, but they’re fantastic until something actually goes wrong at which point it’s nigh impossible to figure out what it was or how to fix it. “It just works…until it doesn’t.”

  29. 29.

    Comrade Kevin

    @Zifnab:

    If you’re going to deal with an obnoxious OS that needs half a dozen emulators to function properly, at least have the decency to go with Linux.

    Emulators? for what?

  31. 31.

    Tom G

    Oh and for what it’s worth, I know 6 or 7 people who are using Vista daily. None have had serious issues. Although I am not a Microsoft fan, I do think Vista was probably better than people said it was online.

  32. 32.

    The Moar You Know

    I have had one problem with Vista, the only time I’ve ever tried an upgrade installation. That I don’t recommend.

    Otherwise, frankly, Vista has given me no trouble whatsoever here in the shop – got about half my people (20 users) on it and it is just fine. Of course, I am not trying to run obsolete software on it, nor run it on obsolete hardware. But yeah, it’s been a pretty good experience.

    I’ve been running server 2008, both at home and here at the shop, and that is one fantastic operating system. Just great. Win7, from what little I’ve used of it, seems on a par.

    Good luck, John!

  33. 33.

    Alan

    When I used Windows I always did clean installs when I upgraded. It seemed most people who had issues were the ones who put the disk in and upgraded. Hopefully, it’ll be different for you.

  35. 35.

    James Hare

    Windows 7 is full of win. It’s hard to admit when Micro$oft does something right — they’re so much easier to hate; however, Windows 7 is everything Windows Vista should have been.

    I’m upgrading my last Vista machine tonight. My company got the RTM build when it went to MSDN so I’ve been running it for about 2 months now. I don’t know how the same company that made that godawful abomination Vista could come up with 7.

  37. 37.

    twiffer

    i will say that vista annoys the hell out of me. mostly because killing a process does not seem to work. i hate being asked permission to do everything, despite being the admin of my machine. i’m sure there are ways around it, but i use my home machine so rarely it’s not worth the bother.

    anyway, what so often fails to get mentioned in the great console flame wars is that viruses and malware have to be compatible with an os as well. windows gets more because it has the largest market share.

  38. 38.

    Roger Moore

    @r€nato:

    I have NEVER heard of ANYBODY switching from Mac to PC.

    It happens more than you think. For example, my boss’s boss used to be a serious Mac guy, but he gave up on Macs and switched to PC. Of course that was in the pre-OSX days, when it made sense to move from an OS9 Mac to a Win2K PC for stability, and I’m sure it didn’t help that our IT department treated Macs as a second class platform when it came time to support users.

  43. 43.

    Comrade Mary

    And as much as I would LOVE to get a gorgeous little Mac of some sort, as as affordable as a decent Mac is these days, getting all the new software I’d need would break me. I’m staying with XP for a few more months, at least, and will move to 7 if it seems to work for people using what I’m using.

  45. 45.

    John Cole

    @freelancer: Yes- I have an Apple laptop and desktop, and a windows desktop. I like them all for what they do. I do have to say that the macbook pro 17″ laptop is, without question, the best laptop I have ever owned, but I still love my windows desktop.

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: I’m not sure what my chip is on my desktop and can’t check now because it is installing Windows 7, but I believe I have 8 gigs of RAM, a raid array, a top of the line ATI card, and I forget the brand of sound card. Want to say audigy. Have a 24″ main monitor and a 21″ side monitor.

  49. 49.

    theturtlemoves

    Just remember to use the Easy Transfer functionality. Transfers all your files, preferences, etc auto-magically even if you do a clean install, which you should. I’ve used it on four different machines now and it worked like a champ in all cases.

  51. 51.

    John Cole

    BTW- I think the reason I never really had a problem with VISTA is that I bought enough computer to run it comfortably. I think a lot of the problems people faced were because they were on less powerful machines and switching to VISTA just killed them resource wise.

  52. 52.

    Rainy

    I had problems with Firefox and Vista but that’s it. I like it. It not Windows XP, but it works for me. I don’t, however, like Office 2007. I took me forever to find out how to print and stuff. I liked the old one better.

  53. 53.

    Captain Goto

    Mac at home, Windows XP at the office. We sell engineering software (none of which has been ported to the Mac OS) and saw from the initial published benchmarks that Vista would suck huge monkey balls (e.g. horribly slow graphics) when running those apps. Later the software mfrs.–well, at least one of them–released patches for Vista, but I can count on one hand the customers that have told us that they’re using it.

    Don’t know if/when the same mfrs. will put out W7 compatible stuff. At home, I love how the Mac does graphics, photos and Facebook, but my copy of MSWord doesn’t include the kewl font that I used in the “Jazz at Emmanuel” program for the last ten years. Which should more properly be blamed on Ballmer than Jobs, anywho. Other than that, given my slowly-encroaching arthritis, the cheap-ass keyboard is starting to get on my nerves. And when I used a cheat to speed up the mouse tracking on the super-wide screen, the pointing precision went completely to suck (again, grumbles about arthritis).

    But I won’t give it up because of the cool factor. That, and my Luddite fiancee would murder me in cold blood if I ponied up for a new machine right now.

  54. 54.

    Treefrogjohn

    I live on my MacPro, now with Snow Leopard, but have been running a developer copy of Win7 under Parallels. I have found it to be much quicker and less intrusive than Vista. As much as I love my Macs, I credit Microsoft for having listened to its many dissatisfied Vista customers.

  56. 56.

    asiangrrlMN

    PC gal here, though most of my friends are Mac users. I have had no problem with Vista–because my techie (my bro) set it all up for me. Eh. Whatever.

    Tunch pics, please?

  57. 57.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    Like I mentioned before, I’m a gamer so a Mac would be useless to me.

    Vista has no problem running Office, Powerpoint, Excel and Photoshop. I’m sure it helps that the first 3 are made by Microsoft but Adobe is just as compatible.

    My mp3 player is a Creative Neeon, I connect via a USB, paste the songs/albums I want to directly into the temporary drive and I’m ready to.

    My HP digital camera works similarly. I plug it in via USB, copy the pictures from the temporary drive and paste them wherever I want. I can open them with the basic picture viewer or Photoshop easily.

    Of the eight games I’m tracking for release – Aliens vs Predator, Assassin’s Creed II, COD Modern Warfare 2, Diablo III, FIFA 10, FIFA Manager 10, Force Unleashed Sith Edition, Left 4 Dead 2 – only Diablo III and Force Unleashed will be released for the Mac and I can’t imagine they will look or run half as well on the Mac than they will on my PC.

    I realize that there are two areas where Macs are very good – music composition and graphic design – but I’m neither so why would I want to switch over?

    My PC was designed by me (built by my IT pro brother). I picked the motherboard, processor, memory, video cards, optical drive, case – basically everything. There may not be another PC on the planet that is like mine yet Windows makes it work and do what I need it to do.

    And the only reason why Macs seem more secure is because they make up less than 10% of the computer market. Once they become a worthwhile target for hackers you’ll have just as many viruses and infiltrations as PCs do.

  58. 58.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Max: Fucking cool of Keith O., Max. I had forgotten about that. Thanks for reminding me. Wish the so-called liberal media would point out this glaring discrepancy.

  59. 59.

    NobodySpecial

    I have to say, I took an early flier on Vista. I didn’t have most of the problems that people seemed to find common with it, either. Hell, I don’t even OWN anti-virus software, and I’ve never had a system crash that wasn’t caused by a piece of hardware going PZORTCH at the wrong moment.

    I must live a charmed life, or something.

    Anyways, I won’t be buying 7 yet, I want to build the new comp with 7 when I finally decide Frankenstein won’t cut it anymore, and that’s at least a year from now.

  60. 60.

    clonus

    Count me as another person who switched from Mac to PC. I was a Mac loyalist since the days of the Mac SE and the Mac II and the 9600, etc. etc. etc. Owned at least 6 or 8 Macs at one time or another. Problems galore with all of them.

    Finally switched to PC in around 2000 or 2001–started with Windows Millenium, upgraded to XP. No problems. Ever. Just got my first PC with WiFi. Came with Vista, got a free Windows 7.

  61. 61.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @John Cole:

    Cool. If you have any games that you were unable to run maxed on Vista I’d like to know if you see any improvement with Windows 7.

    I used to use ATI cards exclusively but switched to SLI’d Nvidia Geforce 8800GTS’ for my current machine. I’m not sure if I’ll ever go back.

  62. 62.

    Vince CA

    Ubuntu Linux (Jaunty is the current release). Just sooo rocking my world. I’m running it on my laptop right now as I type this. The office suite is finally mature–I’m a Linux guy, but this has been shoddy for a long time. Firefox is the browser. Honestly, what else is there in an OS now? The big debate in IT circles is whether OSes matter anymore. Fire up the netbook, launch Firefox, and that’s the computer experience for most of today’s home users.

    I left the Windows Vista partition on the drive (but substantially smaller) just in case I need Windows. And I admit I need it about 5% of the time, so I’m glad to have it around. I can’t stand its security model though. Everyone in IT says that MS finally got wise to their security complaints and Vista just pissed everyone off because it did things ‘right’, but I don’t buy it. Just like Windows 3.1 was a Mac clone, their security was a clone of Unix circa 1986.

    MS Windows is popular for good reason, but it’s the same reason that VHS beat out Beta: price.

  63. 63.

    Redshirt

    I challenge anyone to name a worst piece of default Microsoft software than Windows Media Player. Coded in Hell, I’m convinced.

    I do IT in a very big company, and said big company never made the switch to Vista, instead sticking with XP. A wise move I thought, and I suspect many, many other businesses did the same.

    I’ve not used Vista much myself since the initial testing phase a couple years back, but I’ll roundly agree that MS has improved it, and if you’ve got the hardware specs, you’re fine. For home — I still would not recommend it for business. But that does not matter any longer.

    I think I have convinced myself what I’m going to buy next: A mac. Since! You can easily run Windows on it.

  64. 64.

    jeffreyw

    I’m doing OK with Vista on a Dell laptop, only problem was an old HP printer that just wouldn’t run despite me downloading the patch from the HP site, it was a shared printer connected to a desktop in another room, never bothered to try to run it directly from the laptop. Been happy otherwise, and printers are cheap enough that I replaced it with a network enabled machine for about the cost of a new set of ink cartridges. The new printer was found right away, and installed with a few clicks.

  65. 65.

    theturtlemoves

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: I’ve been running 7 for a while now with SLI 8800 GTs, not GTSes, so pretty close to your setup. Also built it myself. I’m running 7 64 bit with 8 GB of RAM and I am seeing a little framerate improvement with settings pretty well maxed out in Fallout 3 and Bioshock. But, the drivers are still a little immature, so I get some occasional artifacts in Fallout 3. It is better after the Mothership Zeta DLC and upgrade, but still seeing some wireframes in ground textures every once in a while.

  66. 66.

    DecidedFenceSitter

    Color me another person who is using Vista and loving it over XP – but that is mostly because I’ve got the 64-bit processor, and Vista handles that better than XP.

    After dealing with Win 95 hell years ago, I always just wait till the first service pack before I bother to upgrade, if I choose to.

  67. 67.

    sylvia

    Thanks for the Little Bitsy votes!

    I keep telling Little Bitsy she needs to go out and work (beg) for votes but all she wants to do is play fetch with the ball!
    Sylvia

  68. 68.

    ericblair

    Been running Windows 7 release candidate on my new box for several months, and it’s been very stable and relatively fast. I haven’t found much use for the new GUI toys like shake that they’ve been touting. I’m a gamer, too, and therefore Mac and Linux are not options.

    The security popups are a lot less annoying than on Vista, but the whole concept is flawed and just a way to dump responsibility on the user for allowing access to programs that the OS doesn’t give you much information on. Historically, Windows was a single-user standalone workstation OS that has had networking and multi-user support bolted onto it, and backwards compatibility requirements mean that the basic worldview hasn’t changed.

  69. 69.

    Violet

    @sylvia:
    Can she make another video? She’s so adorable and your video convinced several people to vote for her. As I type this, she’s within 50 votes. Go Bitsy! Vote!

  70. 70.

    Tsulagi

    I have NEVER heard of ANYBODY switching from Mac to PC.

    Well now you will.

    Dad hates computers so about the time the ‘rents really got into email and discovered the Internet wasn’t just a porn provider, mom took the lead in getting them a “real” computer. She settled on a Mac. Because it was pretty, especially the monitor. And because the salesman convinced her all they needed to do was take it out of the box, plug it in, and they’d never have worries again.

    Maybe they took it out of the box wrong. According to them, sucker never worked right for long. Even after it took a trip to Apple and back. I had the occasional joy of trying to troubleshoot over the phone.

    When the plan became to get a PC, but connect it to the expensive, pretty Apple monitor, they found the monitor used a proprietary Apple video connector. Dad was beyond frustrated and pissed. He shot the Mac. Literally. Drove to a canyon locals use as a plinking range, sat the Mac up about 30m away, then took calm satisfaction in slowly loading his .45 revolver. After emptying, said he put in two more rounds for an upclose double tap. Took way too much pleasure in that. Poor Mac is probably still rusting away in that canyon.

  72. 72.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Is that you LauraW? You are attractive. But I will place no more votes for a dog named ‘Little Bitsy’. My influence among others is not insignificant.

  73. 73.

    jibeaux

    I’d buy a Mac if they didn’t cost two and a half times what a PC does. For my needs — internet, iTunes, and pictures of my kids — can’t justify the price. I just bought my under $500 PC laptop a few months ago, works great, I made sure to get one that offered a free Win 7 upgrade since Vista was in its final throes, if you will, ;) by that time. I’m sure that process will have its own headaches, has anyone tried to tackle that yet?

  74. 74.

    Bruno

    PC vs Mac…. ho-hum.

    It’s like Whole Foods vs. every other market.

    It would be nice if most of us could afford Whole Foods and Macs, but alas, most of us are poor.

    We can’t all be John Cole, you know! :)

  75. 75.

    asiangrrlMN

    Oh, I lifted this from a friend’s FB wall. I know I said I would never mention Balloon Boy again, but this is funny. NSFW (lyrics), though.

    I’m in a Box.

    I thought it was going to be a parody of Dick in a Box, though.

  76. 76.

    Persia

    @Redshirt: Don’t get me wrong, the Apple commercials are annoying, and I have a PC laptop, for I am cheap. But the Macs really are a walk in the damn park compared to the PCs. Microsoft (at least XP) is a lot better than it used to be, but the virus issues are insane.

  77. 77.

    Laura W

    @Brick Oven Bill: Oh in your dreams I am that lovely, gracious and warm, Bill.
    That would be Sylvia, Bitsy’s new mom.
    Please, I BEG OF YOU, BILL…do not stalk any of us. Especially Little Becksy.

  78. 78.

    Little Macayla's Friend

    I put this in the last open thread, but it might be very good news (for Bitsy):
    “I haven’t read all of the recent BJ posts and comments, but the Houston Gardener’s post about Bitsy made the Daily Kos front page Recent Diaries list today. Post is dated 9:30 a.m. PDT 10-22-09.
    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/22/795915/-Are-you-an-animal-lover “.
    John, could the Windows 7 install affect the blog, and Bitsy? Are the blog and W7 separate issues?

  79. 79.

    jpe

    I ran XP happily for several years until I got a new laptop w/ Vista, which wound up being a giant glop of suck. I switched to Ubuntu after a week of vanishing files, mysterious desktop reconfigurations, and continually dropped internet signal.

    I don’t know jackall about programming, so I wind up spending an hour a week trying to figure out all the wacky codes I have to type in to the terminal (run screen) in Ubuntu, but it still beats Vista by a country mile.

    Sole drawback: won’t stream Netflix, which has sold its soul to the devil and requires PC users to use MS.

  81. 81.

    Osprey

    For Rusty-

    If you have some spare time a good water-cool setup is well worth it. If you get quality parts it can easily last you through numerous MB/Cpu and GPU upgrades. I’d avoid any ‘kits’ if possible-though possibly cheaper, cheap isn’t exactly good when running water around your electronics :-(

    You just need (or get your brother to do it) to do some research as to what you need to cool before you buy. Then a good 2 days to put it together and a quick leak-test.

  82. 82.

    Gus

    I don’t understand the “my current OS works great, but I’m upgrading it” mindset. You’re just asking for trouble.

  83. 83.

    Violet

    @asiangrrlMN:

    I wish a big name blogger like Andrew Sullivan would get on the Little Bitsy train. His crowd could definitely help her. He’s so fond of his beagles and Evelyn has even done a big beagle rescue. Come on, Andrew! Help out Little Bitsy and animals in need of rescue!

  84. 84.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @theturtlemoves:

    Thanks. I have a 64-bit and 8GB too. Our machines sound pretty close.

    @LarryB:

    I like my case – it’s an industrial looking black with a mesh front and clear right side. I’ve got blue LEDs on the fans that look teh kewl. After years of the cream colored cases I’m pleased with something that has a little more style.

  85. 85.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Women have stalkers.

    Men have groupies.

    Have no fear though LauraW, the worst I do is tailgate women with Coexist bumper stickers, with my truck, and closely trail women sporting Coexist tee-shirts around grocery stores, with my shopping cart.

  86. 86.

    Redshirt

    Yeah, everything’s working great, so I’m upgrading? Don’t understand that either.

    I never upgrade anything unless it’s required, either because everything’s blown up, or there’s a piece of software/etc that needs it.

    But upgrading for upgrading sake is a luxury — and a risk – I won’t take.

  88. 88.

    Laura W

    @Little Macayla’s Friend: That’s so damn great to see it up again and revised.
    That person either knows a lot about the story from a personal perspective or has read every post and comment here, and followed every link to other sources. I would like to know the identity, personally. But if you are reading:

    THANK YOU A BAZILLION TIMES FOR YOUR PASSION AND EFFORTS AND THOROUGHNESS!

  90. 90.

    Violet

    @asiangrrlMN:

    I figured he wouldn’t want to be upstaged by James Wolcott and would come out with a Bitsy bleg and some comment about how beagles are teh bestest evah. C’mon, Andrew! Save a few more beagles just by blegging!

  91. 91.

    Laura W

    Allright. Bitsy is within EIGHTEEN votes of Rufus. In the last hour 500,000 people have been emailed by FlyLady, at the very least.
    Also, 6800 people have just been emailed by what I am guessing is a breed rescue group maybe.

    I believe Bitsy is unstoppable.
    Know Hope!

  92. 92.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @Osprey:

    I was reading the reviews for Thermaltake and Gigabyte water-cooling kits and they seemed a little spotty. The failure rate just seemed too high for the amount of damage it could do. I’m probably going to go with quality parts over price in the end.

    I’ve asked my brother to suggest a solution – we’ll see what he comes up with. He’s very good with that stuff so I trust his recommendations.

    I have to get something in there. I was playing Assassin’s Creed the other day at 1600×1200 and it generated too much heat and crashed the pc. It looked absolutely awesome with a good framerate and now it feels like I’m missing something when I play at 1280×1024. It still looks good – just not as good as I know it can. Still sharper and smoother than a console, though.

  97. 97.

    Laura W

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    the worst I do is tailgate women with Coexist bumper stickers,

    You made me spit string cheese on my FABOULOUS MacBook Pro, Bill. I’ve started to see these around town and couldn’t even read them until I looked closely in a parking lot. Very funny. Two good laughs from you today. I guess I forgive you. Try to stay unbanned for a week, will you please?

    Re. Sullivan: I sent him an informative, begging email yesterday. Followed it up with the whole story of Evelyn’s single handed rescue and placement of 29 Beagles after their owner was shot. Scroll down and read the newspaper link. In case it would help, I can email him again today and tell him Evelyn pulled a gorgeous Beagle out of our kill shelter yesterday and placed it in a home.

  99. 99.

    theturtlemoves

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:

    I like my case – it’s an industrial looking black with a mesh front and clear right side

    So, we may have damn near the same system in more than RAM, then. Don’t suppose that black case with the side window is an Antec Nine Hundred, is it? That’s what I have. I even got a Rosewill 750 Watt power supply with another blue LED just to make sure it can be seen from space.

  100. 100.

    Violet

    @Laura W:

    In case it would help, I can email him again today and tell him Evelyn pulled a gorgeous Beagle out of our kill shelter yesterday and placed it in a home.

    Maybe the Beagle should wear the green bandana too and be in the same photo op with Bitsy and the Iranian flag?

    If the beagle angle doesn’t grab him, I don’t know what will.

  101. 101.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    “…the worst I do is tailgate women with Coexist bumper stickers, with my truck, and closely trail women sporting Coexist tee-shirts around grocery stores, with my shopping cart.”

    And you’re proud to be a creep? What happens when that thrill fades?

    Brick Oven Bill – once and future sex offender.

  102. 102.

    Rick Taylor

    I’ve heard good things about windows 7 from someone who hated Vista. I’ll be curious to know what you experience is like; if it’s positive I may give it a try. I understand it’s supposed to be not nearly so much of a resource hog.

  104. 104.

    gbear

    About two years ago I bought a Dell with WindowsXP pre-loaded. This is after pre-loaded Vista destroyed (within two hours of plug-in) two off-brand PCs that I bought from a local store.

    Last thursday, I shut down the computer but let it download two automatic updates from Windows before turning off. When I came home, I had a blue screen of death. I called a Dell tech and things kept going downhill from there.

    When I went to work on friday, the office email system had crashed, my bank’s online banking features didn’t work, and the phones at my doctor’s office were out of whack too. I’m wondering if that Windows update didn’t fry lots of computers far and wide.

    I did enjoy a totally computer free weekend though. I was too pissed off to deal with it and wanted to put off feeling like the tech moron that I am. I hate computers.

  106. 106.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @theturtlemoves:

    OK, this is getting spooky – I do have the Antec 900.

    It’s like the time I found out that there actually was someone else in this country with the same name who also liked motorcycles.

    The internet is a wonderful thing. Thank goodness Al Gore invented it.*

    (* I’m pro Goreacle)

  108. 108.

    Brick Oven Bill

    I do not need to stalk. Believe it or not, I have a groupie. Consider me to be an educator J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford. Taking the six-o-clock position behind a Coexist bumper sticker is a teachable moment for the driver of the vehicle with the bumper sticker.

    I am seriously considering getting a ‘Got God’ vanity plate for the front of my truck.

    I have voted for ‘Little Bitsy’ only once, as a sign of my good faith.

  109. 109.

    Osprey

    @Rusty

    I’ve built a few Thermaltake pre-mades for people-never had any failures with them, it just didn’t do much better than regular air (though the sound difference is huge if the case is near you at all).

    AC had marvelous visuals-just got very repetitive, typical Ubi.

    http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/index.php?

    Good place for information/reviews/questions.

    Longtime lurker, not much to add that hasn’t been said on the political end, but if you or your brother have any ?s or need recommendations, feel free [email protected]

  110. 110.

    theturtlemoves

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:

    OK, this is getting spooky – I do have the Antec 900

    In all fairness, the 900 has been a really big seller for Antec, so there’s probably quite a few of us out there that have it sitting under our desks. That said, as soon as I get some debt paid off and can convince my wife, I’ll be looking into buying a BMW R1200RT, so there’s the motorcycle thing, as well.

  112. 112.

    burnspbesq

    @Zifnab:

    I gave up on Apple computers back in 1988, when I realized I wanted a computer that could run applications not also made in Steve Jobs’s garage.

    Step into the present, amigo. Every piece of software that I use on a regular basis exists on both Win and OSX. In EVERY case, the mac version is superior. That includes Office, iTunes, Firefox, Safari, Audacity, Max, Norton Anti-Virus, and Vuze.

    Office for Mac beats the Windows equivalent worse than the Phillies just beat the Dodgers. And that’s even after allowing for the fact that Entourage is le suck.

  113. 113.

    Matt

    Since this is a dog blogging thread, I’ll give an update on Henry. First of all, thank you to all the BJ readers who donated to Cares4Pets. Contributions through paypal amounted to $400. I know there were a few contributions sent in the mail, so the total is going to be even more impressive. I didn’t set out to raise money, but I’m still very appreciative.

    There are a few families that have expressed interest in fostering Henry, but they have dogs or children, which may not be the best thing for him yet. We’re sure to find someone, but it may take another week or two.

    The rehabilitation expert from Cares4Pets checked him out yesterday and was just horrified at how thin he is. I don’t think she’s had to deal with such a case before, which says a lot because just recently they picked up a dog that had been thrown out of a car window. To make the story even sadder, the fact that his coat is in good shape means that he almost certainly was living in someone’s home until just before we found him.

    As to his current status, Cares4Pets hooked us up with a larger crate so he has a bit more room and he’s eating well. He loves to just wander around our small apartment, but because we have the other dogs, he doesn’t get that much time to do so. He gets lonely by himself so I told our dog Andy to keep him company while my wife and I are gone.

  115. 115.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    “I do not need to stalk. Believe it or not, I have a groupie. Consider me to be an educator J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford.”

    Yeah, I’m sure you taught it to rub the lotion on it’s skin.

    “I am seriously considering getting a ‘Got God’ vanity plate for the front of my truck.”

    Don’t you think the vanity plate will draw attention away from your Truck Nutz?

  116. 116.

    GReynoldsCT00

    “I do not need to stalk. Believe it or not, I have a groupie”

    So does Richard Ramirez

  117. 117.

    sylvia

    @Brick Oven Bill – wow your tough – only once – hmmm – what name for Little Bitsy do you prefer?

    Should Little Bitsy and I go shopping for a green bandana?
    I’m sure she would love to play dress up!

  122. 122.

    Violet

    @sylvia:

    Sylvia! Don’t engage BOB. Danger! Danger!

    Yes, Bitsy would look adorable in a green bandana. If there were an Iranian flag somewhere nearby with which to photograph her, even better Sully bait. But the green bandana alone could only help.

    Do consult with Laura W first, though. I’d hate for you to run all over creation if she doesn’t think it would work to entice Sully into posting a Bitsy bleg.

  124. 124.

    Brick Oven Bill

    You are perhaps new here Sylvia. LauraW is to change the name ‘Little Bitsy’ to the name ‘Glenn’. Then the dog will win the contest.

  125. 125.

    Violet

    Urgh. I mean to say, “If there were an Iranian flag somewhere nearby that could be included in the photograph.” Obviously using the flag to photograph Bitsy isn’t going to work very well.

  127. 127.

    elmo

    Bought a Dell notebook preloaded w. Vista about six months ago. It has never worked right. Constant bluescreen o’ death and the sound keeps deciding it doesn’t want to work today. The Dell techs walked me through a complete wipe and re-install, sent out a tech with a new hard drive and another complete wipe and re-install, and finally just sent me a new computer — which has the exact same problem. I have given up, I never use the thing, and I have to fight back a rising tide of rage every time I look at it.

  128. 128.

    Violet

    LauraW – that rescued beagle is adorable. A green bandana and a photo op with Bitsy would do wonders. Can it be arranged?

  130. 130.

    PaulW

    YOU never had a problem with VISTA?

    O.o

    Have seen other post about your upgrade to Windows 7 and the Infinite Update Loop of Doom. I can see this to the overall good. It might force people to invest in a company to make an Operating System that, you know, actually works.

  131. 131.

    Laura W

    @Violet: I honestly don’t think at this point in the week going to all that effort to get Sully’s attention is a good expenditure of anyone’s time. He’s got the info. He reads this blog. He’ll do it if he is so moved. Or bribed. Or threatened. Or whatever motivates the man.

    I need to go get a life for a while, Violet. Will you keep refreshing Bitsy and Rufus and let us know when she finally passes him? Last I looked she was within 12!

  132. 132.

    Martin

    Twittered from a friend at the MS store opening:

    Offering a new servce with PCs purchased here: Signature. Will remove all the OEM added cruft and give you a pristine Win7 install for free

    I expect they will be overrun…

  134. 134.

    Violet

    @Laura W:

    I’ve got to head out in a few minutes too. I’ve spent the whole day in front of this stupid computer – half of refreshing Bitsy and Rufus, it seems – and I’ve got to go get some things done offline.

    But for the record, right now:

    Bitsy: 4324

    Rufus: 4334

  135. 135.

    Violet

    @Laura W:

    Maybe Sylvia has a green scarf or scrap of cloth hanging around that she could use to tie around Bitsy’s neck and just take a photo of that. Would a sign placed between her paws saying, “Andrew, vote for me!” help? LOL.

  136. 136.

    NobodySpecial

    @JAF:

    Antec 900 here as well. Older/cheaper setup, though. Phenom 9600/4 GB/Dual Radeon 3800’s/OCZ 700w PS.

  137. 137.

    Karen

    When I bought this computer, Vista was on it. I had to upgrade Acrobat but that was it for about a year & a half. Then the scan button on my HP all-in-one stopped working with Vista & I couldn’t find an alternate method to do what I needed to do. So I bought an Epson all-in-one because the 1st OS mentioned on the box that it was supposed to work with was Vista.

    I’m one of those people who stumble onto something that works, then prays it stays that way because I don’t know how it got fixed. I’ve seen the articles about W7 being “cleaner” than Vista, but I’m not going to pay for it & I’m terrified that nothing will work again if I change. But I will watch to see what happens with Cole’s experiences.

  138. 138.

    sylvia

    Little Bitsy is closing in!!
    Need more votes to make it comfortable –
    so you think changing her name to Glenn would help?

  139. 139.

    Violet

    @sylvia:
    Maybe you should tell BOB that her real name is Glenn, but her stage name is Little Bitsy. LOL. But really….back away slowly from BOB. Danger! Danger!

    She’s within five votes now! Vote!

  140. 140.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Glenn would be unstoppable. Think of all of the good works that could be done with the proceeds.

  141. 141.

    Maude

    @gbear: You are not an idiot. It isn’t you, it’s Uncle Bill.

    Redshirt, I’m learning server apps all by my lonesome on ubuntu 9.04. There are windows and MAC in the room. I network the MACs thru the ubuntu. Can’t get the ubuntu to go thru the MAC to a printer.
    I won’t update to 9.10 until Jan/Feb.

  142. 142.

    Brick Oven Bill

    I am no fool and will not fall for that crap Violet. The advertisements, currently bearing the name ‘Little Bitsy’, on this web-site, must be replaced for 24 hours with updated advertisements bearing the name ‘Glenn’.

    As in:

    “Vote for -Little Bitsy- Glenn.”

  143. 143.

    licensed to kill time

    @Karen:

    I’m terrified that nothing will work again if I change. But I will watch to see what happens with Cole’s experiences.

    Check out the new thread :(

  144. 144.

    daryljfontaine

    @Violet:
    Keep an eye on “AC PUP” as well; despite only around 1000 votes last week, that dog has over 3000 this week which suggests a serious forum/social network push, and a chance at being a dark horse candidate.

    I’ve passed along the video link to some friends who frequent social networking sites; I suggest everyone else do the same, as those things have a tendency to explode participation. Reading the Week 11 Winner blog, apparently the winner’s owner bribed people to vote with virtual loot in an online game, which was deemed just as kosher as the appeal to emotion from shelter dogs by the contest runners.

    So really, all stops are out — except for multi-voting. One vote per person/IP address per day, otherwise the votes get discarded.

    D

  145. 145.

    Violet

    @daryljfontaine:
    Yikes, AC Pup has taken off! I’m really lame about social networking, but am trying to work other networks.

    I still think trying to get Andrew Sullivan to feature Bitsy would do wonders, even at this late date. He’s got a massive readership. C’mon Andrew! Do the right thing!

  146. 146.

    Violet

    Alert! Little Bitsy just pulled ahead!

    Bitsy: 4374

    Rufus: 4373

    Not sure it’ll last long, but she’s looking good! Go Bitsy!

  147. 147.

    Comrade Darkness

    @r€nato: You want comments about the suckiness of microsoft, try the sidekick phone forums over at t-mobile.

    After 3 weeks, finally got my phone contacts back. In true microsoft fashion, rather than just sending them to the phone, the way the phone has worked for seven years, you have to download them to a computer and immediately re-upload them again. If you are one of those people who uses a smartphone rather than a computer, you are just out of luck, I guess . . .

  148. 148.

    sylvia

    @daryljfontaine – you’re right we’ve got to push hard to win this. I saw that AC Pup is getting more votes too.
    All stops are out!!

    But Little Bitsy doesn’t answer to Glenn.. she just looks at me with those brown eyes….

  149. 149.

    licensed to kill time

    I have been voting every single day for the Bitster. I have no idea why, because I have never EVER registered or voted in one of these type of things before and most likely never will again. It’s like I’ve been hypnotized or something.

    Wow, Balloon Juice is powerful stuff. I hope I don’t start jonesing when the contest ends. Go, Little Bitsy!

  150. 150.

    daryljfontaine

    Rufus is nipping at Bitsy’s heels with dogged determination. 4402-4401 as of this writing.

    D

  152. 152.

    Morbo

    DougJ! Hey, DougJ! Have you seen this yet? Someone, presumably a Democratic mole, in Scozzafava’s campaign thought it would be a good idea to hold a campaign event in front of Hoffman HQ. The visual alone is just hilarious.

  153. 153.

    Little Macayla's Friend

    @Brick Oven Bill:
    If you vote for Bitsy for three days, and she wins by one after running neck and neck, then YOU would be UNSTOPPABLE!
    /never tempt fate

  155. 155.

    licensed to kill time

    @asiangrrlMN: Yea – imagine what Evil Balloon Juice would be like: the awesome power of Tunch would simply smother all opposition and goosestep us right into Real ‘Murkans.

    (I spent some time trying to imagine that place and got skeerd so I gave up. It hurts my brain.)

  156. 156.

    Warren Terra

    From a TPM story, how bout that survey the North Carolina GOP sent its supporters asking whether the North Carolina National Guard should be sent to secure their southern border? Pesky South Carolina!

  157. 157.

    Ole

    Been running W7 since the Beta in February and now the RC. Not one single crash, supports all my hardware, runs smoother on an Athlon 64 3500+ with a measly 1 GB RAM than XP. Every thing’s perfectly fine. Don’t get the 64 bit version unless you REALLY need it, though. Lots of issues with non existing drivers.

    Just do it if you’re into Windows. Far the best OS from Seattle so far.

    Regards.

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