My Little Soapbox http://laniganonline.com One geeks opinion in a sea of many. Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:56:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Windows 7 Takes Some Getting Used To… http://laniganonline.com/technology/windows-7-review/ http://laniganonline.com/technology/windows-7-review/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:56:24 +0000 admin http://laniganonline.com/?p=21 In my last post, I detailed the specifications about the new box I built. The very box I am posting from at the moment. I am dual booting Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux. Both of these are the 64bit variants. I have avoided using Windows Vista like the plague. In fact, aside from playing with it for all of 2 minutes at Best Buy once, I haven’t used Vista at all. So, the thing is, I built this box and I needed an OS. I wanted a 64bit OS because I put 4GB of RAM in it and I didn’t want it to go to waste. I don’t own a copy of Windows XP 64bit and, honestly, I can’t find my 32bit copy either. What to do, what to do.

Well, I downloaded Ubuntu and Windows 7 RC1. I installed Ubuntu first because these days Linux is just easier and faster to install. I started using Linux about 15 years ago. In those days it was a real nightmare to install the first couple times. Of course, I learned a lot about Linux from those early days with no graphic installer and no autoconfiguration. I started on Redhat and Slackware, soon became a Debian zealot, and finally graduated to the ‘compile everything for your box’ crowd with Gentoo. I would say Gentoo is still my favorite, but I just don’t want to invest the time in tinkering with Linux anymore. Therefore, Ubuntu gives me a super simple ‘it just works’ OS that installed from putting the new HD in to logging in and ***having my wireless PCI network card working*** in under 20 minutes. That is just crazy quick.

After getting Ubuntu installed, I moved on to Windows 7. Not nearly as smooth to say the least. I realize that this is not an OS that is actually released yet, so I expected to endure a little more hassle. Anyhow, it took the rest of the first evening and the following two evenings ot get everything working properly. The wireless card was a real nightmare. My recommendation to you, skip Linksys cards for Windows 7 until the OS is released. And then you may want to boycott them for not supporting there hardware with lines like “we don’t support prerelease OSs”. I had to revert to using generic Ralink drivers and that took some googling to find the solution. Also, I had to enabled broadcasting on my AP to get the connection setup. Once the I had the connection, I was able to turn SSID broadcasting back off and all is well.

I have been using Windows 7 for a couple weeks now. I really like and use the quick launch bar in Windows XP, so I am a little miffed that there isn’t a quick launch in Windows 7. Maybe there isn’t one in Vista either and people are used to this by now, but as I said earlier, I skipped that OS. Anyhow, once I figured out how to make the start menu bigger, all was right with the world. It has been pretty stable, although I did go through crash hell, over and over and over one night, but this wasn’t Micorsofts fault. I have a Pogoplug, which I love, but the driver for windows has some bugs in it. I was trying to get all my music imported into iTunes. Lets just say, after about the 6 consecutive crash, I gave up.

Ah, I almost forgot, the other issue I had was with my Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 2.0. Logitech isn’t supporting Windows 7 yet either. After much googling, I was able to get it to work.

So, all in all, I am digging Windows 7 for the most part. I think I will like it a whole lot more once it is released and has better driver support.

]]> http://laniganonline.com/technology/windows-7-review/feed/ 0 Extra! Extra! Frankenbox Back From The Dead! Read All About It! http://laniganonline.com/technology/hardware/frankenbox-back-from-the-dead/ http://laniganonline.com/technology/hardware/frankenbox-back-from-the-dead/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:10:54 +0000 admin http://laniganonline.com/?p=14 I had a couple computers over the years when I was growing up. I mowed lawns and did odd jobs to pay for them. They were pretty cheap, but I am not going to tell you specifically which they were as it will make me sound very old :-/ Anyhow, as an adult I purchase my first PC, a Pentium 75MHz clone. Since that time I have built every computer I have owned from parts, other than laptops. About 3 years ago my desktop died while in the care of my wife. I didn’t rebuild it because I have a laptop for work, we were in a temporary apartment while our house was being built, and I just didn’t see the need to spend the money. Recently, I decided it was time to bring it back from the dead.

When I am building a new computer I usually start with recommendations on CPUs, motherboards, memory and graphics cards from Ars Technica and AnandTech. I used to reference Tom’s Hardware as well, but I don’t care for the site that much anymore. This time around, I pretty much followed a budget box recipe, so to speak, set out by Ars Technica. Here are the specs:

Given that I hadn’t been using any computer that was newer than 4 years old, this thing is blazing fast. Plenty, plenty fast. I haven’t had time to do any gaming yet. I must resist the urge to get back into WoW because I love my wife and don’t want a divorce. Must resist, love my wife, must resist, love my wife…

]]> http://laniganonline.com/technology/hardware/frankenbox-back-from-the-dead/feed/ 0 First Post! First Post! http://laniganonline.com/about-me/first-post-first-post/ http://laniganonline.com/about-me/first-post-first-post/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:25:55 +0000 admin http://laniganonline.com/?p=9 Sorry about the title of this post, but I just had to pay tribute to where the “blog” all started for me. For those of you who are unaware, Slashdot was one of the blog pioneers. With tons of followers that are very vocal, in a digital sense, it was like a game to get the first comment on a new post.

Anyhow, this is not my first blog, nor will it be my last. It is not even the first time I have had a Wordpress blog on this domain. It will be a personal blog, and as such, don’t expect it to be updated on a schedule. Unless, of course, I start getting so many ideas that I need to share that I can make that happen. Oh, and winning the lottery so that I have tons of time to kill might help too. What you expect me to parot the line about how winning the lottery wouldn’t change me and I love my job so much I would do it for free so I would just keep working after becoming wealthy over night? Not likely.

A little about me:

  • I am a software engineer.
  • My first career was in construction having grown up in the business my parents owned.
  • My first real career was as a graphics designer.
  • Graphic design led to web design which led to software engineering.
  • I worked in the first dotcom gold rush and got caught in the fallout.
  • I like road cycling, mountain biking, and reading fantasy/scifi/cyberpunk
  • I like bulleted lists, hehehe

Well, we’ll see how well I do this time around the blogging block.

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