Book Commercials & Misanthropic Observations

Brandy & Hannah

Brandy & Hannah

Originally uploaded by Brandy Dopkins

New Year’s Eve at the Y

Day 2: Windows 7 RC

I downloaded the Windows 7 Release Candidate yesterday. This evaluation version will quit working in June 2010- giving me a year to play around with it for free. I suppose the downside is that I will have to purchase the full OS next year instead of a less expensive (I’m assuming) upgrade version.

This OS is loaded on my Everex stepnote – not a powerful machine by any standards. I timed the start-up this morning: 48 seconds. Not bad. And this is the full version of Windows 7 RC- not stripped down in any way for netbooks.

I really, really appreciated the partition control interface in the boot menu. I was so frustrated with the forced partition in vista and tried many things to shrink and expand and delete volumes, even partition magic- no dice. This netbook only has a 70gb hard drive and came partitioned in half, 33gb each (plus the tiny recovery partition. I kept that of course) I pointed my documents to the 2nd partition as well as a couple of programs - but was soo limited in my c:drive space-augh! All better now.

Well, so far the interface feels familiar, a little like Vista with the less heavy graphics and user account control. I knew how to turn UAC off in Vista, in Windows 7 you “turn it down” by degrees. Huh? I want it off. Oh well, I’ll leave it as is for now. It’s not bothering me.

The interface for choosing to log onto “this computer” or my domain at work is confusing to me- instead of a drop down and select which one, you must know the name of the computer or domain and enter it before the username, separating with a slash. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

We are in the middle of a huge server switch in the office and I’ve opted to wait to join the new domain when it’s all up and running.

Not only have I not run into any troubles in my 2 whole days of vast experience, I had a surprisingly easy time loading work printers, even without joining the domain, AND accessing the shared folders on the old server. So with those 2 things out of the way, why would I even need to join the domain at this point? No applications install trouble yet, even with Adobe CS3 suite.

I needed the touchpad driver to disable the touchpad while my mouse is plugged in. I can’t stand when your cursor jumps around while you type. I downloaded the Vista version and it worked beautifully. I read online that most vista drivers will work with windows 7.

I could go on and on- by now your eyes are glazing over. I’m just gonna go play with my new machine.

Data Execution Prevention Shuts Down Explorer

I tend to look up old issues on my own blog- this is for future reference

Found solutions here: http://bubble.ro/Data_Execution_Prevention_error_message_in_Windows_XP.html

the fix for Bill’s computer was to remove Real Player.

Adobe CS3 install solution

This post is relevant to Photoshop Extended CS3, and all Adobe CS3 creative suites. I am publishing it in the hopes of giving one more shot for Google to spit out an answer to the next poor schlep desperate to find a solution - ANY solution, augh!

Cindy Roo got a new computer in April. She had patiently worked on hand me downs from other office staff for years and was FINALLY given her very own gamer machine. We call it the 57 Chevy, cuz it has a Red Chassis and looks like a grill. It was also time to move Roo to Photoshop- she had been using an old copy of paint shop pro for years while I had switched to Photoshop years ago and Kristi and Mary were now using it too. Image editing is pretty integral to all the desktop publishing she does and we need to be able to share files. She also needs Acrobat and was constantly going to a different computer to complete tasks. Simple requirements - I have installed these programs multiple times on many different computers.

But THIS time, I could not complete the install! I tried installing Design Standard Creative Suite AND Web Premium Suite, as well as a single copy of Photoshop. EACH and EVERY time, after spending hours just trying to get to the point where the software asked for my serial number, I still have not gotten anything other than a PS window and an hourglass cursor with the window indicating that Adobe Photoshop CS3 is not responding. No other programs in the suites would even get that far.

Realize, today’s date is June 5th- and I just found the solution YESTERDAY- so it has been well over a month of installing, uninstalling, tech support calls, web surfing for solutions, installing, uninstalling, reformatting the hard drive to have a clean retry, installing, uninstalling, reformatting again. Through it all Cindy remained a very patient uncomplaining co-worker who never had a fully working computer and was often booted off by my maintenance and sent to some other computer for the day.

It wasn’t an option to not have the software she needs to do her job, nor was it feasible to purchase a copy of CS4 for her because we might have been back to file sharing compatibility issues, not to mention the price. I also didn’t give up because the installs worked on computers I had tried before this one.

Here is a site that lists many solutions that have worked for others in the past. I tried EVERY trick listed here- multiple times. http://blog.flexuous.com/2007/07/20/adobe-cs3-install-hell/

But my resolution was found in this Adobe patch for the FNP licensing service, I gave it a shot because it made sense; my hang-up was waiting for the license screen – this patch is not even listed as for XP OR the CS3 creative suites http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3750

It worked! Why this patch was needed on this computer and not the others, I have no idea.

Cred goes to this forum for the answer. http://forums.adobe.com/thread/377888

Ammo-chips do work

Remember my test to see if Ammo chips would work? I cut the experiment short by converting that tank to a home for Takeyo.

The Saga of the poorly thought through purchase of neon tetras continues. They have been in the micro tank for 2 weeks, doing fine, I thought. I turned on a light in the tank on Monday to discover they looked completely salted: an Ich infestation! I decided to move them to the spare 12 gallon tank in another room. These poor fish. I could not have planned to put them through more stress if I had tried. So I ended up with a completely uncycled hospital tank, exactly the situation for which was keeping Ammo-chips on hand.

I moved them Sunday night and treated with a Jungle Ich tablet, shut the light out and left them alone overnight. The next morning before work I tested the water and had an ammonia reading of 1.0. Bad enough by itself, but to add that to stressed, ich infested fish was just insult to injury. The problem for me was I had to be at work and did not have time, unless I called in, to do a water change. So I put 1/3 cup if ammo-chips in a nylon sock, tossed the sock into the filter and went to work. When I got home that night and retested the water (AFTER the water change- I didn’t want to make the fish stew while I messed with test tubes, but set aside the water for testing after they had a fresh tank) and the level was 0! yes, 0! I was amazed and relieved. Of course I won’t depend on Ammo chips long term, but they are great in an emergency.

I am now treating the Ich with a water temp of 86 degrees and no salt, since I’ve read that salt is bad for neons, and using Seachem Prime to reduce the stress of a cycle. I continue to be amazed that these fish are alive, and know I have a responsibility to care for them as best I know. They are creatures created by God in my care. All the same, had I realized that they could not live in the big tank without being snacks I would not have gotten them, sigh.