Virtual PC

I started having trouble with IT at work and it was predictable, completely foreseen, since I use Windows Vista at home. My choice was due to the fact that so many of my customers were getting Vista on their new PCs. I wanted to have experience with the OS in order to help them continue using the PACS system at work ... that is only supported with Windows XP or Windows 2000.

So, I could either format my hard drive or install a virtual PC. Time was not a critical factor as I found another way (I talked the user through the problem over the phone) and either would be fine. The virtual PC would allow me a dry run at "down-upgrading" my PC anyway and I could delete the thing if it was not successful.

So, virtual PC it was.

I haven't tried vmware yet and virtual PC seemed easy enough. I just downloaded and installed the software from Microsoft and pulled out a couple of CDs for the installation.

I have a couple of versions of Windows XP, both Professional and Home versions that I have purchased over the years and I grabbed one of my XP Professional discs. I also did a quick Internet search for the Windows XP version of the driver controllers for my Hitachi hard drives. I figured that was the minimum I would need and perhaps I could add other drivers later.

The install was almost exactly the same as installing Windows XP on a PC, and boy was it sweet!


After that, I booted up the virtual PC ... all in a window!


Best of all, if I call for support and they want a screen cap, all they're going to see is Windows XP Professional.

Sweet.

Old Home Movie (JibJab)

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Oh Lord, I'm in a Jib-Jab

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This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer.

My Dad sent me an email. He had a problem with Outlook after he had installed, then uninstalled Firefox 3. Then he reinstalled Firefox 2 and started getting an error when he clicked on a link in Outlook.

--- Original Message ---
After reloading Firefox, when I click a link in Outlook I get an error message stating: “This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.” I've looked at what I know to do but that's little regarding this message. What do you think?
--- End Message ---

I found the answer on a family blog!

The Luebbes: A Family Blog

The fix is really fairly simple. (Too bad I didn't know what to do! LOL!)

In XP: Start - Control Panel - Add Remove Programs
On the left side of the Window, choose Program Access and Defaults.
Open the currently selected and change the default web browser selection to another web browser.

Click OK.

Open Outlook and click on a link. It should open just fine.

Next ... Autorun.inf and USB Drives

Apparently it requires a bit of a change from the autorun.inf files you've been creating for CDs.

More later ...

9021Oh No

I heard yesterday that television has hit a new low. They are bringing back 90210. I guess I shouldn't concern myself. It was such a lousy show that I couldn't watch it the first time around, what are the odds that the regurgitation would be worth watching now?

Teach Yourself Programming

Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days, Third Edition by Jesse Liberty

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Very educational and easy to understand.


View all my reviews.

Vista and Vaio

My boss wanted a new, lighter, faster laptop.

Hey, I can’t blame him! His was a few years old, not enough RAM for what he does and heavy to carry around. Compared to today’s notebooks, his old laptop was like carrying around a desktop computer.

He showed me specs on a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ460E and asked if it would do the job for voice dictation, viewing PACS images (he’s a radiologist) and the other dozen functions he needs to do while on the road. I noted that the thing was being sold with Vista and that he might want to ask if they had any flavor of XP, since that was compatible with our software in the Health System and that Vista was not.

They weren’t selling XP with this laptop.

“Don’t worry,” I told him. “We can always pick up a copy of XP Professional and just wipe the drive. No problem.”

I lived to regret that promise! It was nowhere near as easy as I had supposed.

Well, eventually my boss found that the notebook was slow and sluggish. For a computer with 3 GB RAM and 2.1 GHz Core 2 Duo T8100 processors, this seemed very odd but I had already had experience with how much RAM Vista gobbles up. Even on a clean installation, you’ll only have about a half Gig of RAM free.

So, I took my boss’s licensed copy of XP Professional that he purchased over the Internet and grabbed the notebook and took them home for a quick, over-night formatting.

It took me at least 3 days.

Laugh if you will but Sony does not make XP drivers for any of the equipment online. Support told me that I would have to obtain the drivers from the component manufacturers.

The first night I partitioned the drive and tried to install XP for a dual boot. I failed pretty miserably.

The second day, I went and bought myself a USB floppy drive and some floppy disks since to add additional drivers you need a floppy disk.

Well, the first drivers to get were the Hitachi drivers for the hard drive. Without the hard drive, you can’t perform an installation.

Hitachi did not make any XP drivers available for XP. Vista only.

Okay, so I started Googling for alternate drivers and found a website. Unfortunately for me, Google informed me, “Your search - HTS542525K8SA00 xp drivers - did not match any documents.”

Not to be discouraged, I found the Open Drivers website.

I grabbed the hard drive drivers, floppy drive and my install disk and … the installation still didn’t work … so I took a break and played a game of Vector TD2. Sometimes I get ideas if I concentrate on something else other than the work.

About ten minutes into the game, I thought of looking for the drivers for the hard drive CONTROLLERS. Ah! My first good idea. I found the drive controller drivers Intel(R) 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller Driver here.

NOW I was able to format the hard drive. It was about 12:45 AM by this time, so I turned in and let the install finish while I slept.

The next day was devoted to tracking down the drivers for the Ethernet adapter. Once I found those, I went to DriverAgent.com. I love these guys. They’re worth every penny.

I searched, downloaded and updated the drivers for every component on the notebook. The only one I couldn’t get to function was the driver for the on board camera. The driver for that would ONLY run in Vista.

I spent the last day setting up the laptop’s secure access for work, remote access to two 3D image manipulation platforms (complete with username and password instructions), the same version of Microsoft Office as work, Microsoft Access and the teaching file system that I had built so that he might keep an eye on what his students are doing at any time.

So, I learned my lesson. Even though I had rebuilt over a dozen computers over time, that did not mean that the next experience was going to be easy. I think it also means that Microsoft carries considerable clout for influencing manufacturers to not make XP drivers available for customers.

Installing XP for Dual Boot on a Vista Computer

Ugh.

I could just leave it at that. Installing Vista on my old XP PC was simple by comparison.

Tonight's Odd Turns

I don't know about you but I often start off looking at something or engaged in one activity and then wind up so far off the track having run across amazing stuff I never knew existed.

Tonight is one of those nights.

Don't drink milk when you read the next question because I don't want to be responsible for you wheezing milk out of your nose:

Have you ever heard of "Scud the Disposable Assassin"?

It's a comic created by Rob Schrab about a vending machine assassin. That's right, you plunk in your quarter and you get a robot assassin who takes care of the job and then explodes. Hence, disposable assassin.

I started out on YouTube for some reason searching out some old fan film favorites of mine while I was talking to my brother on the cell phone. I was talking to him about Grayson and Batman: Dead End before I started my usual generic "animation" search.

I ran across a "4 Minute Film School" episode hosted by Rob Schrab! I had seen some of this guy's animation of (well, basically junk) puppets. Real Robot Chicken kind of stuff or fast Saturday Afternoon Cartoon stuff where they use puppets against a green screen. It was informative and fun but when I hunted down Rob Schrab and Scud the Disposable Assassin, I found Pat Grubb's animation tests of his 3D animated Scud test renders. I originally thought they were professional animation tests!

Pat Grubb aka Neuropolis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iik7zo4UgfA

This kid just finished animation school and was looking for work. While being bored and waiting for the 3D money to roll in, he decided to make a 3D version of his favorite comic character, Scud. He sent some renders to Rob Schrab and Schrab supposedly LOVED them and he said he wanted to see Scud animated.

Pat found out about the Scud the Disposable Assassin short film contest and has decided to enter the contest. This thing (contest) started at the beginning of May and has to be finished by the end of July. He (Grubb) has modeled two of the three characters he is going to need and is well along the way to finishing the third.

The very short animation test has a MARVELOUS sound track that I had to hunt down. It turns out to be "The Pretender" by Foo Fighters. This is one of those songs that when I hear it, I wonder aloud, "Why did no one tell me about this song?" So, I bought it off of iTunes immediately.

Then I listed to Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" for a bit and wound up typing this while watching "Burn Notice".

This day has been just all over the place.

End of the Rainbow

I always wondered where the rainbow ended.

Who knew it was the parking lot at work?

I was confronted with this bit of beauty walking out of the office yesterday.

Traffic This Morning

Now THAT'S a line of traffic. This line extended for a couple of miles. Thank goodness it moved. It moved slowly, but it moved.

Better Dental Health

Here's one for you: I like my dentist.

He's ... nice.

In fact, the whole office is composed of kind people.

I have lent them a hand with their computer on a couple of visits and spoke to a software vendor on their behalf. It is the kind of thing that I enjoy. It was fun.

My dentist sent me a generous gift certificate for a restaurant in gratitude!

My wife and I had an appointment with my dentist yesterday and while my wife was having her checkup, I chatted with the dentist's wife about their website. Although they have a couple of pages, there is very little content.

It turns out that they pay for all sorts of online content that is not reflected on their website. So, this morning I threw together a four page site, added some images and kept most of the content they already have while adding in some content from their auto-email services. So I zipped it together and sent it off in an email as something to consider.

Perhaps this is odd. Do most people create speculative websites for the dentist that they like?

I hope they like it.

Unexpected Visit

I got a call a little after 10 AM today. My father was at Philadelphia International Airport on his way home!

We got together and had some lunch.

When I walked out to my car on the parking deck, I took a moment to look out at the moving traffic. The images don't do it justice but they're all I could grab with my camera.




I should have taken a shot of my Dad.

Strange Tomatoes

My wife and I went shopping and we found this:



It looked like a pretty big tomato brain. I asked my wife, "When they started selling Chernobyl Tomatoes?"

Then I realized that name probably would not sell and the store must have come to the same conclusion, so they sell them with a different name:



Someone should tell them that tomato beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

Fog in the Morning

Today was one foggy day!



Man, when it's this foggy and dark in the morning, you almost want to turn tail and run home!



And I'm not even in Florida ...