Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Odds 'n Ends

Port Townsend, today. Been "off the air" for a few days for several reasons. First of all, am waiting for verification from outside sources on an article I am writing about an interesting but obscure operation in Canada. Whenever I take on a subject that I don't have personal experience in, I reach out to folks who do, hopefully, have the expertise I seek, to provide you, my reader, with reliable information.

Second reason for being "down" is that I switched operating systems from "Vista" back to a more reliable and efficient operating system - MS Windows XP Professional. And those of you who have messed around with operating systems know that switching up or down on the MS family tree brings on it's own set of problems. Particularly with drivers.

I'm not a "pocket-protector" wearing "geek" - just an old guy in his '60's who has been messing about with computers since my first box - a Commodor 64. And so while it takes a bit longer to iron out problems, I enjoy the challange of getting them corrected. And I'm really happy with XP Professional.

While I was "off the air" there was a disruption in the ether. Dick "Dr. Strangelove" Cheney emerged from whatever "undisclosed location" he is living in and ran his mouth off about the Current Administration.

I found Cheney's remarks stunningly hypocritical in his denunciation of Obama's initiatives. This from a Vice President who was constantly preaching that to be critical of the Dim-Witt's administration was "unpatriotic!"

Finally, Obama is doing a town hall in California, even as I write this entry, with an audience of Americans - not screened audiences as we witnessed when the Doofus went public. As a Vet, I found it particularly egregious that even Military audiences were screened to eliminate the opposition from participating in gatherings.

How wonderful to see Democracy back in action!

3 Comments - Click here:

Bill ~ {The Old Fart} said...

I use Windows XP Professional as well. I'd like a new computer but for now will have to keep the one I got. Also don't want one with Vista installed heard too many horror stories. Mostly no drivers available or you favorite programs not compatable.

Looking forward to reading about the Obscure Canadian Operation.


Cheers

Anonymous said...

Yeah, well I go up to the hospital twice a week for my cardiac rehab program, and often guys from the hospital IT department are on the elevator with me. I'd had Vista for about 9 months on my new Dell, and got to wondering about all the fancy graphics and what it must be doing to my memory. Finally one day I asked a couple of the IT guys what system the hospital uses, and they told me XP Pro. I told them I was using Vista at home, and they kinda looked down at the floor ... So I did some research - you don't have to look far - and bought XP Pro (less than $100!) and installed it last week. Had some problems getting around Dell drivers, but it's all sorted out now, and the computer seems to run twice as fast (dual core). And the guys at the hospital IT dept? Slapped me on the back! Thumbs up! And I've got access once again to my older trustworthy software. It's a win-win!

SDP45 said...

I made the Vista switch about a month ago. I got a new computer to put it on, but it choked on the 8 GB of memory I had in it. Took 4GB out, and now it runs fine. I do miss the XP machine, but it will be coming back shortly, with a freshly reinstalled XP system on it.
My problem now is that I also got a wireless router. The Vista machine can see the XP machine, and pull files (which was great for transferring a bunch of stuff), but the XP machine has yet to see the Vista one. I'll dive into that soon.

I hope Windows 7 is a better beast than Vista.


Dan

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