Zugg Software :: View Entry

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:17 am

I'm sure there's an argument for just about any port configuration you like. My work laptop has a usb port on the right, which is great for the wired mouse it has. My personal laptop was very cheap (only wanted it for net browsing while travelling) and has two ports at the rear left and one on the front in the middle. Bizarre, but i guess i got what i paid for.

Good to hear it's only cables that're a problem, though. Hope all continues to go well.

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:52 am

Windows Update: 95 updates available. This is on Media Center XP2. Seems like there is a drinking song somewhere in here:

"95 updates of windows on the net...95 updates of windows...download one, install it along, 94 updates of windows on the net..."

Before I started update I got Firefox installed (and just copied my prefs again so *poof* I have all of my addons and preferences and bookmarks...I just love how easy that is!). I also installed Office, and had to call the Microsoft telephone number to get it activated (again). Network is a bit weird...I can access the network from the MacBook, but after setting up sharing in XP, I cannot access the disk from other computers in the workgroup. In fact, I can't even ping the MacBook (when running XP) from any other computer on the LAN.

Maybe it's an issue that one of the Updates will fix. I'll worry about it more after all of the updates are finished and then take a look at the XP Firewall settings.

75 updates left...

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:54 am

Just for fun (and to improve CMUD compatibility), I'm also thinking of installing WindowBlinds on this new XP MacBook. After all, since it's running on a Mac... ;)

Anyway, if you have any experience or advice for WindowBlinds, let me know. I probably won't get around to that until later this week when I'm in Texas.

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:03 am

While I'm waiting on Windows Update to finish, some more observations about the hardware. This time positive.

The screen is *very* nice. The viewing angle is MUCH better than my Toshiba Tecra M4. I got the 1440x900 resolution 15.4" TFT monitor. I got the "matte" finish instead of the glossy (the glossy just had horrible screen reflections). My Toshiba wasn't a widescreen, and since my Vista desktop and my XP gaming computer are both widescreen, it's nice to finally have this on my laptop too.

The keyboard on the MacBook is backlit, even when running XP. This is very nice in low-light environments (like surfing at night while Chiara is watching TV). It doesn't have normal PgUp/PgDn/Home/End keys, so when I get into Delphi programming, I'll have to see how this goes. I can probably live without the PgUp/PgDn keys since the gesture scrolling is so nice. But the Home/End keys might be a problem while programming. It will be interesting to see how CMUD treats the keyboard since there isn't any NumLock key.

Tomorrow I will take the MacBook outside to see how it works in strong light. My Toshiba was horrible in sunlight and was unusable. With the matte finish and very bright screen, the MacBook might work better.

The battery came fully charged, which was a nice small touch. Also, the battery has a small button and a set of leds on it to indicate how much power is in the battery, even when it's not connected to the laptop. Another nice touch.

They claim that battery life is worse in XP than in OSX, but I'll have to run a battery test to see for sure. According to the Apple woman, the charger in the MacBook turns off when it detects the battery is full, so it isn't supposed to have the battery recharge memory problem as bad as some systems. My Toshiba was also horrible with this. I think my Toshiba battery lasts about 20 minutes now just because I always keep it plugged in unless I'm on the plane.

Edited: Found a nifty application called InputRemapper. It enables the Fn key on the MacBook to provide some extra functionality. For example, Fn-Left is Home, Fn-Right is End, Fn-Up is PgUp, etc. Very nice. Apple should buy this and distribute it with their driver disk.

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:08 am

Hmm, I still can't ping the MacBook XP after running the updates. And when I try to go into the XP Firewall settings, it says that the Firewall service isn't running and gives an error when I try to start it. When I try to use the NETSH command in a Command Prompt, I get an error about "netsh could not obtain host information" and "class not registered". I tried running some commands and doing some Registry edits according to a Microsoft KB article about this error, but that didn't work.

I am nervous about skipping the 2nd CD installation of XP media center. So just to be sure, I am going back to my original XP disk (the Upgrade one) and will try to use the Repair option to reset everything.

Yes, then I'll have to install SP2 and all of the Updates again. But it that works, then it should give me a cleaner system. I thought that only the Media Center files were on the 2nd disk, but maybe I was wrong.

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:13 am

Nope, that doesn't work either. The damn Upgrade CD won't even do a Reinstall without putting in the old Win98 CD. The stupid thing can't even detect that XP is already installed on the disk! So I'm back to the original problem. I can't use the Upgrade CD because I can't insert the Win98 disk. I can't fully install Media Center because I can't insert the 2nd disk. Why doesn't this damn CD drive have a damn manual eject button!!!!

God, I really *don't* want to risk using a Bittorrent XP SP2 download, but this is getting ridiculous!

Edited: I'm going to try downloading the full SP2 file and see if installing that and then reapplying updates will fix it. Windows Firewall was added in SP2, so I'm hoping that will do it.

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:31 am

Damn Microsoft!!!!

Part way through the SP2 install, I get an "Access Denied" message, and then it just aborts. This is junk!

Does anyone know if "slipstreaming" will work with an Upgrade disk? Or will it still prompt for the upgrade when I use it? I really don't want to spend hours creating a slipstream disk if it's still not going to work.

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:22 am

OK, last try tonight before bed. Since I didn't think slipstreaming the Upgrade disk would help, I decided to try and combine the two Media Center disks into a single DVD. I followed some instructions to copy both disks into a directory and then downloaded and ran NLite to create an ISO disk. I then downloaded and installed the CDBurnerXP software and created a bootable DVD.

This process was actually quicker than I expected. The DVD burner in the MacBook seems to work fine. The longest time was spent in copying the original CDs to the hard disk. The disk booted just fine, and I was able to get into the Repair install portion. Now that is running, and I am going to cross my fingers again (not that it ever seems to help).

I must say that NLite is a nice little program! Lots of stuff there to explorer someday when I have time.

Edited: Also, there *was* a component directory on the 2nd disk that was called NETFX. So it's possible that is where the missing network stuff went.

Wizard Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 1551 Location: Australia

A mac user! Quick, get 'em! <chases with pitchfork>

Yeah, nLite rocks. Being able to slip in the network and raid drivers along with SP2 for a 2003 server install is really great... no requiring a 1.44" floppy drive to load drivers as part of the install process!

I think NETFX is the .NET library, not stuff for networking.

The one good thing about OSX is you can get to the linux prompt and do stuff.

But anyway, good luck with it. <brandishes pitchfork some more>

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:01 am

Woot! That fixed it! I don't know what all was on the other disk. The folders were MEDIACTR (obviously the media center app itselt), NETFX, and TABLETPC. But now I've got a single boot-disk non-upgrade WinXPSp2 DVD that I can use in the future.

Anyway, the repair worked and now the Firewall is available and I can ping the computer. So it was definitely missing some critical stuff before. The nice XP Repair Install kept the apps that I had already installed. I really miss that feature in Vista. And now, back to Windows Update...

"95 updates of windows on the net..."

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:17 am

DAMN IT! Windows Update has downloaded 96 updates, but refused to install any of them. It doesn't even try. It skips through all of them really quickly and just shows a list of failed updates with no error messages or any other help on what I'm supposed to do next. Why is Windows Update such a piece of crap sometimes! Why do I *ALWAYS* have these kind of problems!

Edited: I forgot that I've already had this problem in the past. The problem is that doing a Repair install on XP after you have previously applied certain patches fails because some Microsoft DLLs that are still on the system do not get registered properly. There are instructions here on registering the DLLs manually that seems to fix the problem.

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

Ouch, poor you, Zugg, for having another set of computer hardware issues and computer install frustration! Sad

Was that an expletive, Guinn?

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 5:09 am

OK, I had mostly good luck with getting software installed on the MacBook today. Except, of course, for Microsoft software. When installing Office, of course I had to reactivate Office again. Not using the Internet method...but using the Telephone method. This is getting very tiring. But after that I was able to install Delphi, Dreamweaver, Aptana, and a bunch of other stuff.

Tonight I booted into Mac OSX to try the VMware Fusion emulation product. I got their trial version and it recognized my BootCamp WinXP partition without any problem and created the virtual machine. The problem is that this causes a hardware change for XP, which requires reactivation.

So I activated the WinXP. The Internet method failed again, but the Telephone method worked. Then I tried to run Office from within VMware, and it needed reactivation too. Of course the Internet method didn't work. But this time, the Telephone method failed too. So I get a person (yep, with an Indian accent). After reading my activation code to her over the phone, she says that she cannot verify the ID and that I must reinstall Office!!

WHAT THE HELL! Why do I need to reinstall? I don't want to reinstall. Doing a reinstall is going to require me to reactivate it within WinXP again too. This is crap. I am sick and tired of this damn activation stuff. I know that Microsoft has to deal with piracy like everyone else. But I didn't have this trouble with ANY other software that I have. I have properly purchased this license, and I should be able to use the same software on the computer from either the direct-boot partition or from within VMware. Microsoft is denying me access to software that I purchased.

She told me that I could call their tech support center. She assured me that it was open 24hours (it's about 11pm here). But of course when I called they said they were closed. Bunch of jerks.

Since I don't intend to use Word or Excel via VMware, I am just going to go install OpenOffice on the Mac. I *did* really want to run Outlook, because we have some local plugins to Outlook for our customer service database. The Mac Mail program doesn't seem to want to load messages from our IMAP server (not surprising since most every IMAP mail client I have ever tried has been crap). I might download Mozilla Thunderbird and see if their IMAP support has gotten any better over the years.

So Microsoft, you have just caused me to switch from MS Office to OpenOffice just because of your insane licensing. If I like OpenOffice on the Mac, then I'm going to install it on all of our Windows machines here too. Then I'll look into writing a couple of plugins for Thunderbird so that I can ditch Outlook. Good riddance to all of this Microsoft software. I'm just getting sick of dealing with them.

On the positive side, I love VMware and they are definitely getting my money for this Mac version. Same high quality as their Windows software. VMware is the kind of company that I like to support...they actually write good stuff and support their products.

When I run a Windows XP app via VMware from the OSX desktop, it seems to run just as fast as within XP directly. Certainly Delphi is just as fast within VMware on the MacBook as it is on my Vista system. Same with all of the other software that I tried. It doesn't run many games yet (very basic DirectX support so far), but that's fine. I can always boot into XP directly to run games. But for everyday stuff, this really works and is really fast. I'm very impressed.

Wizard Joined: 03 Mar 2001 Posts: 1127 Location: London

Nah, wasn't an expletive, just couldn't delete a post :)

Just need to get Zugg to move away from Delphi to Java or C# now so we can get CMUD on a non MS platform (not gonna happen I know) and the migration will be complete. Not C# come to think of it, as a MS creation.

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

Yeah, and I've yet to use an impressive and fast Java graphical program AFAIK (although they have improved enormously), so let's just stick with Delphi! Wink

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

<rant> God, I hate VMWare's website! Evil or Very Mad

How is it I can spend over 20 minutes on it and still not find anything that compares or briefly describes their dozens of different products and what they do?! I'm sorry, but I just skip reading all the sales speak they have because it is so woolly - I really hate 'sales speak' on websites and product literature. I want to know what something does, not what problems it solves! I can figure out what problems it solves all by my bloody self! Ah, that website makes me want to tear out my hair! </rant>.

Wizard Joined: 03 Mar 2001 Posts: 1127 Location: London

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:32 pm

That is absolutely horrible copy. It sounds to me like it was written by someone too high-up - they're focusing too much on the high-level business aims the product's intended for and too little on differentiating themselves from the competition, which should be the first aim of any big-yourself-up page like that. I expect all the underlings who saw that a mile off had a hard time talking the boss off the ledge, so it went out. Oh well.

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

Yeah, or someone made the mistake of giving the boss the keys to website! But yeah, you're probably right.

It's rare that I feel the need to vent or whine (but they're not quite the same thing right?), but I just saw a news article on ABC World News about Rev Will Bowen and his campaign against whining, which I thought was a bit of a coincidence! Maybe someone's trying to tell me something!

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 1:35 am

I think you'd need to be working to a very tight definition of "complaint" for that to be worthwhile. I suppose it's a cultural difference, but I understand a complaint to be any expression of dissatisfaction, from "Could you give my steak a bit more please, it's not as well-done as I'd've liked it" to a boss blazing at someone for losing their company lots of money.

Essentially, what he seems to be saying is "Stop Being an Arse About It", a sentiment that anyone who's ever worked in any client-facing capacity (especially retail and customer support, where arses seem to congregate) can agree with. I don't think it's anything new and I frown on his choice of words. Which is ironic, I think, given his spiel about words indicating thoughts ;)

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

Yeah, I don't think he's talking about expressions of dissatisfaction with other people:

Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 4:08 pm

OK, you will *NOT* believe this! Last night I was playing a game on my gaming computer downstairs, and the video card died!

I feel like I need to have an "exorcism" in my house to rid me of these bad computer gremlins! Let's take a tally now:

December: XBox 360 died. OK, it was an original, and XBOX is known for poor reliability. But that was the first "computer" that died this year and had to be replaced.

January/February: First the disk on my development computer, then the motherboard. Replaced the disk and build a whole new computer for running Vista. Spent about 2 weeks messing with the new computer to get it all working.

April: Toshiba laptop video/screen dies. Had to buy a whole new laptop to replace it (MacBook Pro). Spent a week while in Austin getting software all reinstalled.

Still April: Video card on gaming system dies. This was a Gigabyte Silent-Pipe Nvidia 7600 card. The Silent-Pipe seemed like a good feature in the gaming system because we also use it for movies on the big projector screen, so I needed a quiet computer. But apparently while the Silent-Pipe is "silent", it doesn't help much with actually cooling the card. I think that the game I was playing heated up the card too much and burned it out. It went out very suddenly...just gave a black screen. Then the computer wouldn't reboot. I couldn't even get the POST screen. When I swapped the video card for an old one I had laying around, then it booted. The rest of the computer seems fine...just the video card. So today I need to go shopping for a new video card. Probably a NVidia 8800 if I can find one at a decent price.

I'd be ready to rant about the declining quality of computer components, but I think I'm just cursed. All of my computers are on surge protectors, so I don't think it's a power issue. But I seem to be having worse and worse luck with computer parts over time. And my friends don't seem to have these troubles.

Maybe it's like Rev Will Bowen said and I'm just creating my own problems by ranting and whining all of the time. Maybe Microsoft is just pissed that I bought a MacBook Pro instead of a PC laptop and installed XP instead of Vista. So they activated their remote "destroy this computer" control code. Maybe I'm on their hate list so that when Windows checks for updates it returns the code that says "we don't like this customer, so mess up his computers some more". Who knows. I just wish it would stop. I'm really getting tired of it all.

GURU Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 873 Location: USA

Site Admin Joined: 29 Sep 2000 Posts: 389 Location: USA

GURU Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 873 Location: USA