Ewok WIN

Ewoks wreaked some havoc on the Today show (I’m guessing this was today) with some Martini drinking, fist fighting, moonwalking Ewok crazy greatness.

From look on Al Roker’s face, I’m calling this a total WIN.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Windows 7 vs. Linux

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It’s the battle of the noob OS (Windows 7) vs. the entrenched one (Linux).  As I stated in my previous post, I just upgraded my system from XP to Windows 7.  What I think I did not mention was that my system was a dual booting system that was running XP and Ubuntu.  I was fully prepared to deal with the harsh truth that Microsoft forces Windows to be the active partition when it installs.  Normally, I would just go into the disk management tool, and reset the Linux partition back to active (I keep GRUB on the partition, and not on the MBR (Master Boot Record) to make these things go smoother), and things would be back to normal.  Unfortunately, Windows 7’s disk management tool doesn’t want to let me set the Linux partition as the active partition.  I’m not sure what to make of that.  Maybe it’s a permission setting somewhere in the policy editor?  I haven’t really looked yet.  At any rate, I decided to just use Linux to set the active boot partition back.  Unfortunately, all of my Linux LiveCD’s are locking during boot.  (I have a theory now as to why, but I didn’t think of it until much later in the story and I haven’t tested it yet)  Somewhat miffed, I downloaded a DSL (Damn Small Linux) cd image and burned it.  Same thing.  At this point, I was pretty annoyed.  I know Linux works on here, but I couldn’t figure out why it was doing this! 

Then, I remembered my Norton System Works Recovery CD.  This CD is a few years old, but it sports an NT recovery environment and a nice set of GUI utilities for doing recovery specific tasks.  I popped it in, and waited for it to load.  When it finally did, it offered me a set of recovery tools, just like I remembered, and it had one specifically labeled something along the lines of “Set Active Partition”.  Bingo.  Switching the partition, I rebooted, and immediately discovered that GRUB had returned.  After verifying that Linux still worked, I went to boot into Windows again, satisfied that my evening was over, and now I could head to bed.

WRONG!

Windows 7 suddenly would not boot.  It would just hang at the initial loading screen.  I discovered and tried the very spiffy recovery console (new to me, this was apparently added in Vista), and it informed me that it could not repair the problem. Furthermore, the error message relating to it was vague.  It said something along the lines of: “System files corrupted”.  At this point, I began to realize that my only repair solution would be a complete, 100% reinstall. 

#%$#%!!

Hopelessly, I tried googling for information. (My Macbook is my friend) The first thing I noticed was that there was none.  This is not good.  If there’s no information, that means that no one else is having the problem.  This means you’re alone, and, furthermore, you’re pretty screwed.  Finally, well looking at some article about bootrec.exe (I’m still not sure what that exactly does), I had inserted the install disk and was going through the listed instructions for some “boot repairing operation” when I noticed one of the screens referring to my Windows installation (the one needing repair) being on “(unknown) DriveC”  At first, this probably seems innocuous.  But, at second glance, the lack of a space between Drive and C might become apparent.  You see, I name my partitions with the drive letter I wish to assign then to avoid confusion if I ever have to do so.  (Windows allows you to change the drive letters in the Disk Management program)  So, what I realized as I looked at this was that the other part said “(unknown)”.  What this was basically saying was that it did not know what drive letter to assign that drive to.  So, it was not drive c:.  This is where some of the terminology on that Norton Recovery disk’s program suddenly flashed into my mind: When they had asked me what disk I wanted to make active, it had said something about a “disk id”… 

Aborting what I was doing, I quickly popped in the Norton disk again, and waited…and waited…and waited until it finally loaded up.  Rapidly, I switched the active partition back to the correct drive, and rebooted.  BINGO!  Windows 7 booted perfectly.

So, heads up: don’t change the disk letter of your system drive.  That’s just a bad idea, especially if it ends up assigned to NOTHING.

Now, I only need to figure out either why the Linux LiveCD’s are crashing on startup or how to make disk manager change the active partition, and I should be back in business.  :)

You can use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) to troubleshoot and repair the following items in Windows Vista or Windows 7:

• A master boot record (MBR)
• A boot sector
• A Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store

Note When you are troubleshooting startup issues by using the Windows RE, you should first try the Startup Repair option in the System Recovery Options dialog box. If the Startup Repair option does not resolve the issue, or if you must troubleshoot more steps manually, use the Bootrec.exe tool.

 

 - How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows

Εν άρχη ην ό Λόγος και ό γόγος ην πρός τον Θεόν και Θεός ην ό λόγος

- John 1:1

Upgrading to Windows 7 from Windows XP

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There are things to know thinking about upgrading your Microsoft OS.

1. If you wanted a pain free experience, use Ubuntu or Mac OS X instead.  Their upgrade paths are far more pleasant, and Ubuntu’s is completely free.
2. If you do not buy a new computer every two years, but instead choose to upgrade hardware and your existing OS, you’ll have to do it eventually.  Otherwise, you won’t be able to use contemporary software for too long.
3. You might lose all of your data.  Or, maybe, just some.  In rare instances, you might get to keep it all.

I’ve been running Windows XP on my desktop for many years.  I am one of those people who doesn’t buy an OEM computer (unless it’s a laptop), and prefers upgrade his hardware over time.  My computer is definitely an “evolutionary” build.  Since Vista came out, I’ve been frustrated at the idea that, slowly, my beloved XP is becoming obsolete.  Increasingly, software was not running full featured on there.  I didn’t want Vista though.  Everything I had heard was negative.  We bought a Vista laptop for my wife back in January, and the first week or two was just frustrations as we transferred her data (using the “Windows Easy Transfer” tool which was….well….not very thorough) and tried to get everything working.  The wireless card would routinely break our wireless network, bringing the whole thing down on an average of every 30 minutes or so.  If I was playing an online game (like Guild Wars for example), this meant being randomly disconnected from the server.  Of course, this only happened when her computer was on.  We never figured out why.  I just stopped playing online games.  (We actually had her running on a wired internet connection for awhile because that was the only way, but it was too cumbersome.  Recently, the problem seems to have vanished.  Maybe our habits have changed to where I don’t notice it, or maybe it was fixed in a Microsoft/HP update of some kind.  I simply don’t know.)

So, this past week, Windows 7 came out.  I was one of those people who installed the Windows 7 beta on a computer (my Macbook) when it became available in February, and I liked it.  I actually was using it around the same time as all our Vista nightmares were taking place, and it seemed significantly faster and more stable.  I decided pretty early then that I would want to replace my aging XP with it.  When the 50% off preorder deal was offered back in June/July, I preordered it for both Lilly and myself.  Much of this weekend was spent installing it.

Being that my computer is a somewhat “evolutionary” build, I have years worth of data (probably about 10-15 years worth) of data that has accumulated.  That’s data in the form of software as well as things like images and writing, etc.  The software was particularly concerning.  Being that Microsoft has historically used this thing called a “Registry”, you can’t just copy the programs like you can on a Mac. A serial key or activation information will get left behind.  Usually, the program has to be completely reinstalled.  In my case, I had all of this data scattered all over several partitions (it was, once upon a time, a collection of hard drives).  Preserving the organizational structure of my system is important to me.

Microsoft offers no “in place” upgrade path for XP to Windows 7.  Additionally, I wanted to go fro 32-bit to 64-bit, and there’s no option for that from XP to Vista or Vista to Windows 7 either.  That meant that my only option was a “clean” install.  In other words, my data would not be automatically preserved.  Luckily though, there was a way.  That same tool, “Windows Easy Transfer”, which sort of worked for copying Lilly’s old information from her old XP laptop to her Vista laptop back in Jan./Feb., was what I needed to use now.  Using it, I was able to back up all of my user account data, etc.  It wanted me to back up all of my programs (games, etc.) spanning across all of my drives, but that would have been a 400+GB backup.  I didn’t have the space, nor did I want to spend the time doing that.  So, I only backed up my system drive.  This had the unfortunate (but unknowable to me at the time) consequence of NOT transferring the registry settings for all of these programs. I wish it had. Before I “upgraded”, I also used a free tool called “dd'” in Linux to make a byte for byte backup of my system drive.  Basically, if things went catastrophic, I would be able to restore my system drive EXACTLY to that image.  (dd is a cool tool)

So, Friday night, after deauthorizing iTunes (very important!), I began my install.  Booting off of the Windows 7 64-bit disc, I chose the “Custom (Advanced)” install option.  Surprisingly, where I thought it was going to format the system drive, it surprised me by offering the chance to NOT do that.  In fact, it even offered me that option of copying my old Windows directories (Windows, Program Files, and Documents and Settings) to a “Windows.old” directory.  This made me pretty happy.  From here, I continued the install, feeling pretty good.  I was waiting for something bad to happen.

When the install finished, pretty much everything worked.  The only driver I had to install was my printer driver.  (I later installed the NVidia drivers because I figure those usually are better, and I wanted the NVidia control panel.) It took me longer to run the Windows Easy Transfer tool to restore my account data than it did to install Windows, but that went smoothly as well.  The user account I created when first installing the system was NOT the same name as the user account I was planning to transfer in.  I recommend this.  I also recommend installing some of your common programs like iTunes, Firefox, Thunderbird, etc. before transferring your old account and settings in.  I did this with some, but not with other programs.  I realized afterwards that, for the programs I installed before restoring the user account, everything seemed to be restored pretty well.  For those that were not, the install programs for those programs didn’t always preserve the restored settings.  I, for example, did not install Thunderbird until after the restore, and I had to completely redo all of my Thunderbird settings and the Thunderbird address book.  (Luckily, I have an IMAP server, so I didn’t lose my email) 

The dust has settled now though, and the install went pretty well.  This was probably the most painless Windows upgrade I’ve done.  While, of course, it doesn’t hold a candle to the ease of the Snow Leopard upgrade I did recently (basically a “fire and forget” kind of operation that just works, you just run the updater and wait awhile while it does it's thing) or the Ubuntu upgrades I do about twice a year (a “click and forget” operation where it tells you an upgrade is available, you click on the upgrade button, and then you wait awhile, only having to answer questions periodically.), it was still relatively painless next to other Windows upgrades.  Considering I was going the “clean install” route, that’s pretty good.

Last night, I also upgraded Lilly’s laptop, which was running Vista 64, to Windows 7 64.  That was an in-place upgrade, and, while it took about 5 hours, it was pretty painless, too.

Before you try these upgrades, I would recommend running the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor tool first.  It will really warn you about things that will or will not work.  It sometimes will tell you things aren’t compatible when they will end up working anyways.  I had this experience with Nero 6.  I didn’t want to shell out another $70 for Nero, and so I tried reinstalling my Nero 6.  Windows told me it is “incompatible”, but it let me install it anyways.  It works just fine, too. 

Lastly, I was very surprised when I realized that, some of the “cool” new and not so cool traditional programs that had been included in Vista and XP were not available now in Windows 7.  For example, Windows Mail, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Messenger, and Windows Photo Gallery.  It didn’t bother me though.  Then, today, I discovered that you can go download something called “Windows Live Essentials” from Microsoft.  What is this?  Well, it’s basically all of these programs.  You can select which ones you want to install.  I think I prefer this.  I’ve now got Windows Photo Gallery (still not as cool as Picasa), Windows Movie Maker, and a cool program called Windows Live Writer installed.  The last of these is a “blog writer” program.  I’m using it right now in fact to type this.  It seems to work with Blogger, and that is good.  I would recommend installing at least some of these.

 

“I'm actually having fun using Seven, something I haven't said about a Microsoft operating system since Windows 95.”

- Joe Wilcox/MicrosoftWatch

Who is the Big Bad Bar Monkey?

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So, today was my friend, Eric's, 30th birthday. Him and a bunch of our friends are leaving in the morning for Destin, FL. But, before then, we all gathered around for a couple of drinks at the Backyard Beach Bar. I took some video of the celebration with my phone.



It was lots of fun. I miss all of these guys a lot, but it always reminds me, like a slap in the face, of how far away from them I have gone. We live very different lives now. The days of me going out to the bar on a regular basis are long behind me. When a hot girl walks by, I turn away, while many of them turn, ogle, say something, or even whistle. This is not true of all of them of course. Some of them are married. Most of them are single though, and there is a big difference between the practices of married life and the practices of the life of the bachelor.

Every time I go out and drink with my friends, I feel a bit nostalgic. There's no way I would want to go back to the bachelor lifestyle, but I do miss hanging with all of them. Our paths have diverged in many more ways than I've listed already here. I've come into a walk with Christ where him and his will are increasingly at the center of my life. I try to act so that every action is reflective of that fact. It's very difficult. It is difficult when around secular people in general, but it is especially so when being around a bunch of secular friends. They do not hold themselves to Christian values or Christian morality (being, as far as I know, not Christians), which I do try to hold myself to. So, when I go out to a bar with my old friends, I have to be on guard against myself that I don't accidentally do something (from an old habit) that would reflect badly on all that God has done in my life. I endeavor to consider the testimony and witness God has given me very seriously.

If I agree to admire a woman's chest, I'm not only risking a just reprimand from my wife, I'm endangering the integrity of my testimony concerning what God has done in my life. The sad truth is, I really don't even care about admiring this random woman's chest, but when everyone else seems to be doing it, I have to physically look away to avoid it. To some of my friends, this isn't perceived as something wrong. It's just normal guy behavior. As a Christian, I know and believe that God's will is for me not to do this. The temptation I experience to the contrary shows how our peers have a powerful influence on our lives and our behavior. Sometimes, I wonder if Adam really wanted to eat the fruit in the garden or if he did it out of that feeling of peer pressure from his wife. He does seem to cite that as an excuse. (Genesis 3:12) Obviously, that does not excuse him from the just results of his action in eating of the fruit. (Genesis 3:17-19)

The temptation to follow the influence of one's peers reminds me of my battle to quit smoking. When I quit smoking (Was it almost 4 years ago!?!?!), I literally had to stop going to bars and stop hanging out regularly with several of my friends in order to keep my commitment to God. I had decided to promise God that I would quit cigarettes, but I would need his help in making it work. Some would say that's a dangerous promise. It probably is. So far though, it has worked because I fear God's ability to hold me accountable way more than I fear my friend's ability or my own. Most importantly though, it has worked because God has really given me the strength to resist the temptation, even when I still experience it from time to time. Even now, although I've been quit for several years, it's the reminder in my head that keeping this promise is a way in which I love God that helps keep me stay quit. (1 John 5:1-5) Many times I have had the thought in my head, "Only one cigarette will be okay...", and I have rebutted it with the simple logic that it would break my promise to my heavenly father. These temptations almost exclusively happen when I am hanging out with my friends who smoke. They happen even more so when I am hanging out with them at a bar.

I spent a few minutes with a couple of my friends talking about kids and the joys and work of having and raising them. They laughed at me when I admitted it, but I have been softening to the idea of having kids more and more. So many of our friends from church have them that it is hard not to soften to the idea!!! We're not planning on having them yet, of course, but we're at the point where we are thinking more openly about it. I'm happy about that. When God leads us to have children, I want to embrace it joyously.

All in all though, in spite of temptation and the occasional bout of nostalgia, I think tonight went pretty well. I got to hang with and have fun with several of my friends, and it was good. I don't think I compromised the integrity of my testimony. I didn't smoke any cigarettes or ogle any woman's chest. I ate some good cake though, had a couple of good drinks (I have a small weak spot for the occasional Crown on the rocks), and I had a really good time. Considering the occasion, I think that is what it should be all about. (That, and, of course, poking fun at Eric for being "old")

And so, Eric, if you so happen to chance upon this:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OLD MAN!!!

Waste

I close my eyes, and all I see
are thousands of people walking aimlessly.
A darkened sky; no sign of moon.
No stars shining bright, just eternal gloom.
The ground is barren and doesn't show
the tracks of the people walking to and fro.
The air is heavy, visibility low,
and the people don't notice it.
For just a moment the world is clear;
I see things as they're meant to appear.
I see life: the empty void.
The path I walk: crooked, destroyed.
I see the light of a thousand moons
raining down on my face with a thousand wounds.
I see the beasts, decrepit and dead,
worms crawling out of their rotting heads.
Then it is gone in a blink and a flash.
I open my eyes and the moment's passed.

- by: Me (Kelly) - I've posted this before, but I wanted to post it again. :)

For some random amusement: