Chrnocat and I traveled to Sydney on the 28th of September for the annual Animania Festival! Needless to say we had quite the adventure. Throughout the entire visit, I was convinced The Chaser would be out somewhere causing trouble. Unfortunately for me, they were causing troubles in places that I wasn’t in.

Since I am tired and just about ready for bed, I am going to type this as fast as possible and hopefully avoid making any mistakes. I have been meaning to cover this topic and take care of this post for some time, and at this point in time, as depressed and irritated as I feel, I believe now is a good time to write.

Day One 28th of September

I had never been on a plane before, and on an air plan was our designated travel style for this trip. We boarded a “Dash 8” at the Narrabri Air Port for out what seemed to be a short 2.5 hour flight. We first had a stop over at Moree, before finally making the leg to Sydney. The flight to Moree takes roughly 30 minutes. The plane simply flies up, and then down again, without leveling off or reaching normal flight altitude. Needless to say, I was very excited about being on the plane, and when we landed in Moree for a refueling before continuing on, all I wanted was for the plane to be back in the air again. It was a very surreal experience, and reminded of all the hours I used to spend playing Sim City.

Upon arrival, we collected our luggage, and left the Sydney Airport terminal by train. After finally arriving in the city, we set out to find the hotel we had booked our accommodation at. A week before our trip, the hotel manager had contacted us and informed as that they were undergoing maintenance and were moving us to a different hotel. Not only was the different hotel completely tacky (and the coffee was nasty as), it was even further away then our original location, which was still too far away from the location the Festival was being held (Town Hall). I don’t know what Chrnocats mother was thinking when she said “Oh the hotel is in Kirribilly, it’s near everything”. Fark that! It was near nothing, and we needed to travel by ferry to get there and back again. After canceling our accommodation at both hotels and getting a refund, we ferried back to the city, found an internet cafe and book some real accommodation at they Sydney Central Travel Lodge.

Finally after checking in at the hotel, we headed to Town Hall for the evening opening ceremony and other random events that began the Animania Festival. We were hoping to get some shopping in today, but unfortunately we were unable to.

Finally late in the night, we made it back to our hotel for showers, costume preparations for the big day on Saturday, and sleep. Chrnocat realised she had lost one of her hair clips. I reassured her she would find it at the air port when we got back. I hadn’t seen it fall off, but I had a good feeling I was right.

Summary of Firsts:

• First time on a plane
• First time taking the air port train to the city
• First time on a Ferry

Day Two 29th September

It was cool and windy as we walked from the Sydney Travel Lodge to Town Hall, but we were too excited about the festival and all it had to offer today, to be too concerned about being cold. After all, a large portion of the day would be spent inside anyway. Chroncat and I were dressed as Characters from the popular anime, The Melancholy of Harui Suzimiya. I was dressed as a character who is known only by his nick name, Kyon, and Chrnocat was of course dressed as Harui. Needless to say, she looked hot (as in sexy). I’ve always had a secret thing for the whole “short skirted japanese school girl outfit” (how could I not after watching so much anime!) and finally I was looking at my girl friend wearing one. In my eyes, she was by far the best Harui at the festival. Too bad our costumes that we bought on eBay (tailored specifically for our sizes), couldn’t be entered into the Cosplay competition.

The Animania Festival was pretty damn awesome! We bought lots of stuff (DVDs, Plush Toys, etc) and had lots of fun! There were to main floors to Town Hall. The lower floor (or the basement) is where all sponsors and distributors of anime and all things related, had their stalls set up. In the same location was game stations where people could play games on any console ranging from the ancient Super Nintendo to the X-Box 360 (and game cube and Wii). I bought Chrnocat a Wii for her birthday a few weeks ago, so we had no trouble showing off our Nintendo Wii skills to the other excited players! I could go on about everything that was at the Animania Festival, however it would fill several pages, so visit the website or read Chrnocats Post instead.

While showing off my awesome ability to play tennis on the Wii, one of my long lost friends and former students of mine suddenly popped up like Mario. Al Walker, as I shall creatively name him, was as excited to see me as I was to see him. We had a chat for a while and continued to catch up with each other throughout the day as we chased and searched for our run away and over excited girl friends. Thank goodness Chrnocat had a mobile phone and it was turned on for once!

All in all, it was an awesome day. We spent lots of money, and traded photos of ourselves for photos of everyone else! We played lots of games, spoke to lots of people and participated in lots of activities!

After our day at Town Hall, we caught up with Ming Ming, and had dinner at “Pancakes on the Rocks“, an awesome restaurant in Darling Harbour. Following our dinner, we took a walk down what seemed to be a small version of china town and settled for desert at the Lindt Cafe. Ming Ming had lots to talk to us about, and we had lots to talk to her about. We hadn’t seen her since our last visit to Sydney, roughly around the same time last year.

Summary of Firsts:

• First time at Pancakes on the Rocks
• First time I’d been in Town Hall
• First time at the Lindt Cafe
• First time in some crazy chinese shop with a huge teddy bear

Day Three 30th September

Today was a little lower key then yesterday. We spent most of our day visiting various places around Sydney. In the morning we took a walk around town, to visit some stores. Unfortunately, being Sunday after all, nothing opens until 11am (as apposed to everything closing at 12pm on Saturday in Narrabri!). I mentioned that I had never been to Centre Point Tower before, so that became our first stop for the day. The visit to Sydney (Center Point) Tower began with an interesting holographic introduction to Australia and all the things it has to offer. Thinking that was pretty cool, we moved on (with our tour group of foreigners) to the next part of the adventure. Here we all jumped into seats made for roller coasters, buckled up and stared our eyes at screens on the walls. What happened next was quite amazing. The seats we were sitting on began to move, as the video on the screens played. If you allowed your mind to forget that you were actually sitting down, the whole experience felt like you were really moving (and flying) through this entire video sequence being played out on the screen. Needless to say, it was quite amazing! Finally after completing that leg of the adventure, we moved on to the real reason for this visit, the trip to the top of the tower. After a crazy photo shoot of myself and Chrnocat together on a blue screen, we took the extremely fast lift to the top. While at the top, we spied down on the cosplayers at Town Hall, and the many other spectacles that we could see from the top of the tower.

After visiting Sydney Tower, we headed back to the Animania Festival to purchase more merchandise and catch the anime music video awards. After more shopping and participation in the days events, we headed back to the hotel to dump all our treasures (I bought a graphics tablet, it’s so cool!) and headed back out into the town. We did some shopping at some book stores, and then decided to see a movie. We ended up seeing the movie Stardust, which was absolutely brilliant! It would have been even better if it wasn’t preceded by 40 minutes of advertisements, before the trailers, eesh. By the time the movie started, I had the beginnings of a head ache. After the movie, we grabbed a bite to eat from Subway and headed back to the hotel.

Summary of Firsts:

• First time in Centre Point (Sydney) Tower and the OzTrek Experience
• First time I ever bought a graphics tablet

Day Four 1st October

I woke up this morning feeling that something wasn’t right. Feeling that something didn’t check out. While having a shower it suddenly hit me. For the entire trip, I had not checked the departure time of our flights for today. So While Chrnocat showered, I check the times. What a surprise! What Chrnocat had mistaken for 7pm, was in fact 7am. Too bad we were still asleep at 7am! So that was the first hiccup of the day. We had missed our flights and forfeited the costs. After contacting Countrylink and Qantas and weighing up the costs, we finally managed to book flights home the following day, effectively giving us another two days in Sydney. Today was a public holiday, but tomorrow wasn’t! Since we now had time to kill, we decided to go out into the city again to see what we could find to entertain ourselves. Sydney is so huge it’s indescribable, so finding something to do isn’t the hard part, choosing is! We spent the day visiting comic stores and book stores (Kings Comics, The Galaxy Book Store), as well as visiting Myers and other stores of interest. We made our way to Darling Harbour, where there is always something happening, and watched some crazy basker guy putting on a show. We then saw a 3D movie at the IMAX theatre. After more shopping around and expensive chilled drinks, we headed back towards the city to eat.

We had dinner at a place called Nandos, which I will be sure to visit again next time I am in Sydney, which was then followed by ice cream desert from Baskin Robins. Chrnocat is obsessed with Baskin Robins, and who was I to resist either?

Summary of Firsts:

• First time I ever missed a flight
• First time I had to book extra nights at a hotel
• First time in the Galaxy Book Store

Day Five 2nd October

We spent a large portion of today at the Sydney Aquarium. I had never been there before, so like an excited little kid, I ooh and aah over just about everything! It was so fascinating! I had never seen so many sea creatures (and fresh water creatures) in one place before! It was truly unbelievable! I had so much fun there, especially in the aqua tunnels, where you are under the water, while all the fish and sharks and rays are swimming above you! It was truly fantastic stuff! The coolest part of all, was the darkened amphitheater, with a floor to ceiling glass wall, in which you could see all sorts of tropical fish and creatures! With the cool air and surreal music, I could have easily spent the entire day in that room relaxing and watching the ever changing arrangement of fish and creatures!

After the aquarium, we had a quick lunch and headed back to the hotel to grab our luggage and head off to the air port. After dealing with the ticket master, Chrnocat took delight in showing me around the Sydney Airport. We had only stopped briefly in the air port when we arrived, so I had no idea about all the shops, and malls, and stores and everything that was all at the air port! It was quite amazing! After a rest at a Cafe, Chronocat and I decided to some more shopping, and spend what little money we had left. I managed to buy a copy of Grim Fandango for the PC (I know it’s old, but it’s a classic) and I also came across Need For Speed Carbon for the PSP, for only $54! Chrnocat discovered a Darell Lea store and spent her remaining dollars there instead. On the way to our boarding area, I decided I would rest my feet and take the travelator. I don’t understand why, but Chrnocat insisted on walking on the travelator instead. Beats me.

Finally, we boarded our plane and headed back home. Upon arrival, Chrnocat found her missing hair clip (actually I found it, exactly where I figured it would be, on the grass where we were waiting on Friday).

Summary of Firsts:

• First time in an air port shopping complex
• First time at the Sydney Aquarium
• First time I ever saw Grim Fandango for PC
• First time I ever walked through a metal detector
• First time an air port attendant asked me if I spoke english
• First time on a travelator

Over all, it was a great trip! (A Holiday of Firsts!) We had a great time, and I managed to help Chrnocat avoid a few moments of depression, which I knew would not have been able to handle, given the amount of fun I was having, and I didn’t want that to go away. I think that missing our flight was a bonus, although it did cause us to spend more money, despite the amount we lost by missing the flight. Had we not missed the flight, I would have missed out on all the cool stuff we did!

We were planning to go to Supernova in October, but that had to go by the way side since our long weekend in Sydney went way over budget! Perhaps we will come to Sydney again for Animania next year. I think we should start saving now though, especially if Chrnocat is planning on missing the flight home again! (just kidding!)

Unfortunately, I was away on “1 Day to Go”, so I wasn’t able to get a screen grab, but I think you get the idea. My days of using Windows Live One Care, were over! Trust me, I celebrated!

The inclusion of Windows Live OneCare in my 90 day stint, was most certainly a disaster, and also the cause of most of my stress during my use of Windows Vista. Just like other Virus/Spyware detection combo software suites, it too was always scanning in the background. Scanning so much infact, that it would often make reading my email near impossible. I would sometimes wait up to 5 minutes for an email to load into view. The Windows Live OneCare firewall was a pain in the butt, not to mention that Windows Vista itself, did not even acknowledge that it had a firewall installed. For the entire 90 days, Windows Vista was bugging me to enable Windows Vista Firewall, because apparently I didn’t have one installed! For some unknown reason, Windows Live OneCare continued to disable Windows Defender. I found this to be a pain, because every few days Windows Defender would make it to the top of the pile saying “Hey! I am disabled! Enable me Again!”. Of course after enabling Windows Defender, I would then have to do a spyware scan, even if I didn’t want to! “Later” I would click, only to see my CPU usage go way up as it started scanning in the background instead.

One very irritating caveat of Windows Vista, is physical memory usage. During my 90 days, I was unable to get Windows Vista to really function the way I wanted it too. For example, I have 2GB of DDR Memory. So I figure “what do I need a swap file for”. So I disable the swap file, and immediately Windows Vista complains that it does not have enough memory! It even performed sluggishly! Now, if I were to do this in Windows XP, the system would be forced to push as much as possible into physical memory. Which in the case of my laptop with 2GB of DDR Memory, was perfectly fine! I never exceeded 2GB and my laptop never skipped a beat. Come Windows Vista, and I am able to perform the same feat! The best I could get was a compromise, which was still horrid. I was able to push the swap file down to a minimum size of 200MB (instead of the “Windows Managed” 3.5GB). However, if a program on my laptop should use more then 200MB of Memory (Firefox for example, as I am sure many of you have experienced), I would still get the memory warning errors. Sure, I can ignore them, but eventually, Windows Vista would crash Firefox altogether, or whatever offending programs were “taking up too much memory”. As I said above, this was never a problem in Windows XP. Hopefully there is a work around for this out there somewhere. I share my HDD with a Linux Partition, so 3.5GB wasted on a swap file is a lot for me, especially since Fedora 7 is quite capable of running smoothly with no swap partition at all!

Overall, my 90 days of Vista has been fun, and for the most part, I have had next to no troubles. I have swamp of applications installed, and they all work fine, including the ones I had to install in “Windows XP SP2 Compatibility Mode”. Heck, I was even able to install Command and Conquer Windows 95 Edition. With an extra piece of software, I was able to battle against my younger brother.

The slick new interface is funky, and easy to disable when it gets in the way (like when it is sucking up too much of my 200MB swap file for example!). Windows Aero is handy, but it’s not the be all of Windows Vista, it’s just the icing on the cake.

I also opted to include Microsoft Office 2007 in my 90 day stint. The latest version of the Microsoft Office Suite, and boy is it something! Most of the applications have been completely re-written, others updated. If you haven’t tried Microsoft Office 2007 yet, you should give it a shot!

I am sure that Windows Vista has far more to offer then what I have experienced so far, and for the moment, I am going to stick to using Windows Vista and Office 2007, to get the most out of both of them, and broaden my knowledge. I am somewhat established here now, and it would be a shame to just leave it all. I miss using linux, however I think I will continue my use of Windows Vista, at least until Fedora 8 is released.

I will even continue to post my findings and discoveries of Windows Vista, and hopefully at some point, I write a “Windows Vista – The Perfect Setup” guide. Actually, I have one in the works already… so stay tuned!

So far I have managed to do a fair amount of complaining about Windows Vista. In particular, I have referred my quality of computer gaming, gone down the drain, due to the strain and drain that Windows Vista puts on my computer. Well campers, I found a solution to my problems just hours ago.

WARNING:

BY FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW, YOU AGREE THAT I WILL ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR DAMAGE CAUSED TO ANYONES COMPUTER THROUGH MISS USE OR MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW. PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW AT YOUR OWN RISK. JUST COVERING MY ASS. FEEL FREE TO POST ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

Step 1 – Install TweakVista

Yep, download and install this baby. Once installed, customise to your hearts content. Try disabling lots of things. TweakVista won’t let you break your computer, so go ahead, disable stuff. In particular, disable any services or programs you don’t need running. You might need to visit the services list in the Windows Vista administrative tools (not a section in TweakVista). Once there, go through the list and stop / disable any services that you do not use.

Do yourself a favour. If you haven’t already, disable User Account Access Control. Windows Vista will fuss about it, so disable the annoying pop ups too. If you don’t have a home network, there are heaps of services you can disable that would otherwise be sucking up precious memory!

Step 2 – Disable Windows Display Manager

Yep. This is the fancy smancy applet/gizmo that runs on top of windows and gives you that funky glass (or not so funky glass if you have Vista Basic) look on your desktop. You can disable the Windows Display Manager in TweakVista. Alternatively, you can tune your computer for performance instead of looks. You can do this under Advanced System Settings, in the Control Panel, under System.

Your desktop environment will be reminiscent of Windows XP Classic, but heck, does it really matter?

Step 3 – Update!

Make sure you have all available Windows Vista updates installed. Also, make sure you have the latest graphics drivers installed. If you are like me and have an ATI Radeon 9800 SE (software modded to be an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro) then make sure you have the latest modded driver.

Step 3 – Reboot and Play Games

I couldn’t believe the performance hit! Suddenly my games were fast, EVERYTHING was fast! My computer logged on to the desktop in seconds. It now also only takes seconds to shut down! Absolutely amazing stuff!

Summary

Install TweakVista – Customise your system for performance rather than features

Disable any unneeded or unnecessary services – Take your time, read the descriptions. Disabled as much as you can. If you are unsure – LEAVE IT!

Adjust your system for best performance – Disable Windows Display Manager (WDM). You won’t have your fancy looking interface, but you will be saving on that new graphics card you were considering purchasing.

I downloaded Safari. I installed Safari. I opened Safari. I went to a website. Safari crashed. I went back to Firefox. The end.

So long Safari.

With the exception that mine said “30 Days” where the screen shot says 21 Days. I neglected to take a screen shot of my pop up (it was 11:30pm, and I was trying to watch the end of a DVD, while an automated system scan by Windows Live One Care not scheduled by myself in any way, was taking up 100% of the CPU time). I wonder if Windows Live One Care might actually start to do a better job, in an attempt to encourage me to purchase a subscription at the end? Some how I don’t think so.

Issues

The amount of software still not compatible with Windows Vista is becoming a problem. So far I have been able to install some software using the Windows Vista Compatibility Settings. Windows Vista Compatibility does work well, but it’s not the solution for every program. Some software applications just will not work.

I guess my biggest complainy is a result of the amount of times Firefox has crashed in the last 40 days. It crashes now at least once every 2-3 days. I applaud its ability to restore my session after the crash, but why did Firefox crash in the first place?

Windows Live One Care still continues to can my system every damn night! When 90 days are over, I will be removing Windows Live One Care, and installing a real firewall and anti virus software combination. It seems that the free 90 day trial, can’t actually remove anything from the system, it merely finds viruses and spy-ware and “quarantines” them. Want to remove the malware? Sorry, have to pay for a subscription to be able to do that! As for the monthly Tune Up. What Tune Up? I haven’t seen it once yet!

The installation of Windows Live One Care has probably been the worst caveat so far. The integrated firewall is particularly annoying. Especially when the pop messages for programs that require access to the internet, always manage to appear behind absolutely everything else. To make matters worse, they don’t flash on the task bar, like a new active window does. This then causes programs to function strangely, because they need access to the internet, which they don’t have, because Windows Vista failed to notify me correctly.

For some reason, Windows Live One Care also continues to disable Windows Defender. I have no idea why this occurs. Every time I go to run Windows Defender, or it is scheduled to run, I get a pop up message telling me that Windows Defender has been disabled, and that I need to re-enable it. The disabling seems to happen all the time, and is completely invisible to me. Sometimes Windows Defender must be disabled for days at a time, as it often needs to download updates, and than perform several scans. On My PC with Windows Vista, this never happens. My PC however, does not have Windows Live One Care installed either. In fact, My PC is running perfectly fine, with the exception of the degradation in graphics performance.

Pretty soon, getting a replacement AGP graphics card won’t be too easy. Better start shopping around on eBay now I think!

Power consumption is something that I feel Windows Vista does not take care of too well. When I was running Windows XP, I was able to use my laptop, on batter power for a couple of hours. With Windows Vista, set to “Power Saving Mode”. I am lucky if I am able to get 30 minutes out of my laptop, before the performance is so low that my system is unusable. I guess if I turned off Windows Aero, I might get a few more minutes, but wouldn’t it be useful if Windows Vista just reverted to the Basic Theme when the systems is running on battery? It’s not as if it is a big task to change to the basic theme. Just stop the Windows Display Manager server (WDM).

With all of that our of the way, Windows Vista has still been quite good otherwise. I have my complaints, but I haven’t been forced to go back to Linux. Oh how I do miss my Fedora! I wonder will I get to use Fedora 7 much, before Fedora 8 is released? According to the Fedora Release Schedule, I will get a month or so of use before Fedora 8 is released. I know I could just continue to use Fedora 7, but I like to live on the edge!

Why must FTP support always be crappy? No matter what version of Windows I use, whenever I put an FTP address into Explorer, in the username:password@hostname.tld/public_html/site/this/that/etc it always crashes the first time. That’s right. Even in Vista, it crashes the first time, and then when I try it the second time around. I am denied access. To get to where I want to go. I have manually login again with Explorer, and then start at the home directory and navigate my way to the directory I want to upload some files too. Arrgh! Such a pain! Why does Explorer remember the locations I have been to via FTP in it’s history, if it is going to deny me from using such short cuts!! And No, it’s not just one FTP sites, It’s all FTP sites. And No, it’s not my internet connection, because I have been to many different locations with my Laptop, and the result is the same!

What is with Presentation Mode? (I am using Vista on a Laptop). It doesn’t do anything? Every time I connect my laptop to a projector (to teach a class with a PowerPoint presentation for example), I have to use “Extend Desktop”. Even with the Official ATI drivers installed, I can not get the Projector to function as a second monitor per say. Presentation Mode On, Presentation Mode Off. Wtf? I used to be able to do this fine with Windows XP.

The automated running of Windows Live One care is a pain. Especially at 10:30pm at night, when I am working on a Power Point presentation, and I want to save it! If I am able to save it (i.e, my system responds long enough to accept the command) I have to be sure not to click anything else, otherwise Power Point goes all white eyes on me and then it never recovers. Why did Microsoft steal the “darkening of the non responding windows” from Linux? Especially since the windows nearly always recover in Linux. Why don’t they just go down the Mac road. If the current window has stopped responding for more then 30 seconds, just make it go away! To quote Hunter Chrestle “Poof! It goes away! You didn’t click anything, you didn’t even save! It’s just gone!”

I think Windows Live One Care wants my money. I feel slightly like I am being scammed. Every night, Windows Live One Care does a scan. Every night, it tells me how it found 7 (or 10) viruses. It also tells me how it tried to quarantine them, and failed! The same message box says that I should pay for a subscription with better protection. After that, the status of Windows Live One Care stays all green, and apparently there are no problems! So, do I have viruses on my PC, or is this just a copy cat situation, like plenty of that scam software out there available on the internet? What do they call that? Spyware was it?

Interesting Smarts

Vista and Office Ultimate do have some interesting new features. For Example, Outlook 2007 will now attempt to find out your incoming and outgoing mail servers for you. You just put in your email address, and it does the rest. Success rate so far? 0% and I have 8 (yeah I know) different email addresses. Perhaps it only works with Paying Hotmail and Microsoft Subscribers?

Internet Explorer 7 doesn’t crash. Every time I used IE7 in Windows XP, it crashed. Yes, I did have a legitimate version that I paid for. Every time I use IE7 in Vista, it never crashes! I like that, but not enough to give up Firefox, which unfortunately has crashed several times this week alone.

Going back to my pains of the Projector, when I extend the desktop, I no longer need to match the resolution on both screens. I can keep my 1440 x 900 resolution, and have the projector, or other monitor attached, set to any resolution I like. I was never able to do this with Windows XP. Being able to do this with Vista, has made using my desktop in “Extended Desktop Mode” bearable to say the least.

The automatic network connection sensing is good! I no longer need to disable an interface, when I am using the other, to prevent my computer from having problems accessing the network. I can leave them both enabled and Vista fails over to the device with the best availability. Which means I can switch between work and home, and never have to alter my network settings. Fantastic!

Having Said That …

So far it has been good. I am enjoying using Vista, although I do find myself pining every once in a while for the familiar linux console. Sometimes I run up a command prompt, but it just isn’t the same, like really.

Hendo: “Caller One, What’s Your Name?”
Caller One: (might as well have been douche bag, he sounded like one) Mitchell!
Hendo: “What’s the Answer Mitchell?”
Mitchell: “Umm, err, I dunno, is it Kelly Clarkson?
Hendo: “And what is the name of the song?”
Mitchell: “Umm, err, I dunno, is it Baby One More Time?”
Me: YOU FARKING IDOT!!!!
Hendo: “Nope! Better Luck Next Time!”
Hendo: “Ok, Caller Two, What’s Your Name?”
Caller Two: (might as well have been dumb blonde, she sounded like one) Jessica!
Hendo: “What’s the Answer Jessica?”
Jessica: Umm, err, Is it Daddy Cool with Eagle Rock?!!!
Me: FOR CRYING OUT LOUD YOU IDIOT! FARKING DADDY COOL! YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME, ARE YOU AN IDIOT?!!
Hendo: “Nope! Not Even Close! Better Luck Next Time!”
Hendo: “Call Three, Our Last Caller, What’s Your Name?”
Caller Three: (Might as well have been dumb ass, he sounded like one and obviously wasn’t listening to the previous callers) John!
Hendo: “What the Answer John?”
John: Umm, err, is it called Walk Away?
Me: FOR FARK SAKE!
Hendo: Awww, Your Close! and What is the artists name!
Me: WTF! Your Accepting that Answer!
John: Umm, err, is it Kate Winslet, or Kate Cebrano?
Me: YOU IDIOT! YOU FARKING TOOL! DO YOU KNOW HOW DUMB YOU SOUND!
Hendo: “Nope! Close, But Not Close Enough! Better Luck Next Time”
Me: For Crying Out Loud!

As you can see, I was very disgusted with the three callers, from my own town, who obviously don’t know anything about music! This is why I believe the callers are hand picked before they go on air. I mean, they don’t want the competition to be over as it starts now do they? They want the bonus prize money to be huge first, while the rest of us music fans sit and cringe at the voices of the idiots that call up, thinking they got it down!

I know that there are plenty of people out there that will vouch against what I am about to say, so if you are one of those, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

While running Windows XP Professional, my graphics card performed as a Radeon 9800 Pro (I actually have an ATI Radeon 9800se – the card that ATI knows nothing about). Thanks to a software modification, I was able to have my Radeon 9800se function as a Radeon 9800 Pro, and boy what a difference did it make! Staggering frame rates in all my games, including Half Life 2 and associated games! Needless to say, I was happy I had been a cheap skate, and bought the 9800se from eBay. Up until installing Windows Vista Ultimate, and a couple of games, my 9800se reborn, was “the ownage” in my little world. Come now the days of my Windows Vista adventure, and my 9800se reborn, plays games the same games like a 16MB Voodoo 2.

In other words, my graphics card now totally SUCKS the big one!!!1111. Even though I downloaded the Vista software modification, the resulting increase in performance was only that of a slight percentage, and for the first time (in regards to my graphics card), it caused my system to become unstable, and even blue screen! Yes! Vista has blue screens!

It seems that Windows Vista, really claims a lot of your video memory, just to run Windows, especially with Windows Aero enabled. Which is interesting, considering the same effects, in fact, even cooler and better effects, can be run on a 16MB voodoo 2, on a machine running Fedora 7, with Beryl/Compiz installed.

More RAM Please

While sitting idle with just the weird looking side bar and a couple of explorer windows open, my RAM utilisation is at 70% – That’s 700MB of DDR PC2700 (333Mhz) RAM, out of 1GB, being used just by Windows Vista. That’s before I open or run any programs. That is A LOT!

Are You Sure?

I’m not entirely sure why Microsoft implemented User Account Control, but it was one of the first features I Googled to disable. Every time you want to do something, you have to get permission from Windows. For example, Just accessing the general computer information (accessible by clicking “Show More Details ” on the Welcome Screen (if you have that enabled still) will force you to get permission from Windows first. Why do I need permission to do just about anything on my computer, if I am already using an Administrator account? I would hate to be using a standard account. Probably have to ask permission just to click the new fan-dangle start menu!

For those of you who want to know how to disable User Account Control:

1. Make your way to the control panel, and click “User Accounts”
2. Click the option “Turn User Account Control on or off”
3. Untick the box “Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer”
4. Click OK
5. Close the “User Accounts” window.
6. Reboot your computer and enjoy some new found freedom!

Windows Media Player Rules

Windows Media Player, is now pretty much king. It plays all your videos, plays all your music, shows all your pictures and can even download plug-ins to display power point presentations, instead of having to download the PowerPoint viewer (If you don’t have Microsoft Office installed). Windows Media Player is also your built in CD/DVD burning and authoring program. Much like K3B in Fedora and other linux distributions. You even use it to buy music and videos. The only caveat of Windows Media Player having so much power, is that the burning engine still has to cache absolutely all files that are being worked with, onto your “C Drive”. Perhaps there is some merit to this idea, in order to prevent buffer under runs. However, what if the “C Drive”, is the partition that is full of data, and you want to remove data from it, by burning it to CD or DVD? You can’t, if your “C Drive” is full, and therefore can’t burn a CD, because Windows Media Player will not burn the CD, until it can cache the entire contents first.

No Multiple Desktops

I know I am not the first person to accuse Microsoft of being Un-Original. So here is my two cents worth. Among all the things that features and ideas that Microsoft took from other leading operating systems, what I don’t understand, is why they didn’t implement a “Multiple Desktops” feature. I mean, Flip 3D? It’s fancy, but that is all. Being a linux user of so very long, multiple desktops is something I can not live without. Since this feature is about doing everything with Windows Vista, there is no reason why I couldn’t use a work around. To get myself the taste of multiple desktops again, I found Yod’m 3D. It’s a pretty poor attempt to imitate the “Cube Affect” found in Beryl. However it gives me the multiple desktops I require, a little eye candy as well, and impresses my friends.

And Now For Something Positive

I’ve been fairly negative to Microsoft’s latest invention so far, so how about a few positive points.

1. Hide inactive icons in the system tray is smarter.
2. You run many programs with “Windows XP Compatibility Mode” that otherwise won’t run in Vista
3. For some hardware devices (NOT ALL) you can use your Windows XP drivers and achieve perfect functionality
4. The new start menu is cool, and you can still revert to classic
5. Internet Explorer 7 doesn’t crash after viewing more then two websites, like it does in Windows XP
6. If you switch between multiple Wireless networks (home and work) as I do, Vista automatically switches to the available network in the location you are in, and applies the correct settings, BEFORE you logon.
7. You can use Windows Defender to stop programs from starting on startup, just like that great StartupControl Panel.
8. If you have multiple monitors connected to your machine (Laptop or PC) you have different resolutions on both machines, without issue. You can also clone or extend your desktop, without the need for fancy drivers or other programs.
9. Plug and Play Memory Cards, USB Sticks, whatever they are, all write data on the fly. Now you can really can drag data onto your memory stick, and take it out straight away, without worry if the data was actually written or not.
10. The Snipping Tool. It’s just like taking a snapshot with screen grab in KDE (Fedora and other Linux distributions).
11. Windows Vista is extremely stable if you use it properly. The people who complain about it crashing, are usually the ones that install 12 Codec packs to get their torrent obtained videos to work. I installed “Just” VLC. It works flawlessly in Vista, and has every codec required, self contained. No need to download DivX or XviD or any others.
12. So far, Windows Live One Care has done a good job at replacing Ad-Aware, Comodo Pro Firewall and Comodo Antivirus. Seemless integration into the operating system, and very low overhead.

The Road So Far

I’ve been using Vista for 5 days now. I’ve installed Firefox and Thunderbird, but haven’t migrated to Outlook 2007 just yet. Mainly because I was using Thunderbird before, and despite my newest adventure, I can not do without my email. I ended up installing a third party program to perform CD Burning, called Express Burn. I used to use FS-Driver to read my linux partitions, but have since switched to Ext2Fsd. Ext2Fsd provides far more stability then FS-Driver, since I had to use FS-Driver in “Windows XP Compatibility Mode”.

Installing software can sometimes be a pain. Despite disabling UAC and using an Administrator account, some software just does not work correctly unless you install it as “Administrator”. To do this, you don’t need to actually use the Administrator account, rather you right click the installation or executable file and select “Run as Administrator”. After the installation, you are free to run the program normally with complete functionality.  The first time I noticed this, was when I installed the Creative MediaSource software for my Zen 6GB Neeon MP3 Player.

Speaking of MP3 players (and consequently, plug and play removable media), another positive for Windows Vista is its natural and properly full support for the plug and play of removable media devices. No longer do I need to right click the icon in the system tray, or the drive icon in My Computer (which is now called just “Computer”). I can simply copy music or songs to my MP3 player (or PSP, or USB Drive) and simply remove it from laptop or PC, and everything is fine! No corrupt file system, no files missing, its all good!

I’ve only had Firefox crash one time, and Internet Explorer has many improvements also. Obviously not enough to make me give up Firefox though! The fact that Windows Vista was able to source all the websites and locations to get drivers for devices that it didn’t already have drivers for, was most definitely a bonus, and I have some weird components. Like an IDE Expansion RAID card. Who has one of those in their PC?

Until next time ….

Which flavour of Windows Vista do you choose? With a Microsoft Technet Subscription at my fingertips, I could install any version I like, but not everyone has this advantage. Most will end up with Windows Vista Home Basic. Pirates will probably have Enterprise, before they realise what they actually wanted was Ultimate, those with money to burn will have Ultimate, and businesses will supposedly have Windows Vista Business. The full list of versions (according to Microsoft Technet) goes like this:

• Windows Vista Home Basic
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Windows Vista Business Basic
• Windows Vista Business Premium
• Windows Vista Ultimate
• Windows Vista Enterprise

You can check out a comparison here. Obviously there are academic variations of each of the above versions (excluding Enterprise), and I am sure there are many other types of versions as well (evaluation, pirate, trial etc). For the purpose of my “90 Days of Vista”, I will be using Windows Vista Ultimate.

Installation

Before installing Windows Vista, you really need to take a few things into consideration. Firstly, the PC the guy at your local Hardly Normal (Harvey Norman) store is trying to sell you with Windows Vista, is not going to cut it when it comes to performance with Windows Vista, regardless of what edition you choose. Let me set you straight right now. YOUR OLD PC IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH. You really need a PC that you bought late in 2006 or in 2007, to really use Windows Vista at it’s best. Why? Windows Vista is a resource and power hungry monster. Trust me, your AMD Duron 900Mhz CPU might be flying along with Windows XP now, it will be slower then a turtle with Windows Vista.

At the time of writing, I couldn’t find Microsoft’s recommended hardware requirements, so here are mine.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

• 1GB RAM (Microsoft Says “512MB” – Vista will use all that up just for itself, and that’s when it’s idle)
• 1.9Ghz CPU (remember, this is the minimum)
• 20GB HDD. Windows Vista Ultimate will need up to 10GB of HDD Space, depending on how much RAM you have. Other versions of Vista may need less, but I doubt it. Don’t skimp, if you have a 40GB HDD, give it all to Windows Vista.
• 64MB Graphics Card AGP (anything less, and Windows Vista will just seem slow and laggy)

The rest of the requirements are pretty standard. Obviously you will need some sort of optical drive to read the installation media (in most cases you will need a DVD-ROM Drive).

Recommened Hardware Requirements

• 2GB RAM – Trust me, it makes a huge difference
• 2.2Ghz+ CPU or 1.8Ghz Dual Core CPU
• 40GB HDD Space
• 256MB AGP or 128MB PCI-E

The rest of the requirements are pretty standard. Obviously you will need some sort of optical drive to read the installation media (in most cases you will need a DVD-ROM Drive).

I won’t waste space stepping you through the installation procedure. Just keep a few things in mind when installing however.

• Vista can be installed on any partition, it no longer has to be the first partition. Beware, it will overwrite your existing boot loader if you happen to be dual booting with anything else other then another version of Windows.
• Don’t Skimp! Give Windows Vista lots of HDD Space, I was being serious about the 10GB.
• When asked what version you have, consider the power of your machine and what you would like to try out. If you select a version that you didn’t pay for, don’t put your installation key in. You can actually trial any of the Windows Vista versions available to you during the installation procedure, for up to 30 grace days (and longer if you are clever), before you will need to put in your key, and have Windows Vista revert to the version that you purchased.
• You are going to need more then 10GB of HDD Space. Windows Vista will want to copy all it’s setup data to the HDD first (about 2GB).

My Installation

Excluding my troubles in dual booting with Fedora 7 and recovering my linux boot loader, I installed Windows Vista twice. The first time was to see how much of my hardware would get recognised, and to discover how many of my Windows XP drivers would work in Vista. The second time around, I got it all right.

I have Windows Vista Ultimate installed on two machines (a Laptop and a PC). On both machines, I am dual booting with Fedora 7.

Laptop (Odyssey)

• CPU: Intel Pentium 4 540 Processor 3.20 Ghz
• RAM: 2GB PC2700 DDR
• HDD: 20GB Partition
• Graphics: 128MB Mobility Radeon X600 PCI-E

PC (Prometheus)

• CPU: AMD Sempron 3000+ Processor 2.0 Ghz
• RAM: 1GB PC2700 DDR
• HDD: 20GB Partition
• Graphics: 256MB Radeon 9800 Pro AGP

If you are like me, and need to get back to your linux installation as fast possible, before giving it up to Windows Vista for 90 days, here is guide to help you get your Grub boot loader back. If you are using Lilo, well, why are you using Lilo? If you are using Lilo, then you should know how to get it back.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows

The guide is aimed at those who use Ubuntu, but the steps will work for just about anyone who uses a version of linux booted by Grub. You can ask me for help and assistance in regards to recovering Grub, but please do me a favour and check the link above first.

So to finish my installation and begin my 90 days of Vista, I also installed Microsoft Office Ultimate Edition, and Windows Live One Care (hence the 90 days).

My “90 Days of Vista” starts today, on the 1st of July 2007.