The Force may be with you....

....but nobody gets a second chance to make a first impression, and 1977 was 37 years ago, and that galaxy far, far away is even more distant now.

More fun with computer...

After I did that previous thing here, I decided to check into Windows 8 Pro which is on this same hard-drive, just to make sure it was surviving all this testing on the next partition. It wasn't, not entirely. A few things weren't working, like my 8GadgetPack gadgets, and Winroll, which does this

to an open window like this one I'm working on right now. So I ran DISM.exe and it labored mightily for quite a while, and then showed me this...

and after that, things began working normally again, and the gadgets came back, and Winroll was back in the system tray area, and working, and I celebrated by making the new plain green theme above, because someone said green is more restful on the eyes and mine are no youngsters.

And again, let me repeat: if you're installing Windows Technical Preview, create a new partition for it before you start and format it NTFS, so everything's ready for the install. I certainly don't advise overwriting another working operating system just yet, because we're much too early in the process. And eventually, you're going to have to junk it anyway, when the testing period has ended. So it's best on its own space, and keep everything else in their own spaces.

 

A little more about Windows Technical Preview and whiners

But first, a comment on the weather...

The long range forecast for this region, the Pacific West Coast, is for warmer than usual this winter. So how are they doing with that so far? - Wrong!

The actual website is found here, but don't go there unless you are prepared to listen to several supposedly intelligent grown men crying in their beer over the fact that Windows Technical Preview isn't yet quite stable enough to be used by a Fortune 500 company in day-to-day operations. My reaction: "Bullshit!" It has it's problems, as is to be expected with a beta test version, but it isn't as bad as some would have you believe.

One of the tricks that worked for me was to make shortcuts to the folders for Windows Temp, User's Temp, and Prefetch, and dump out the contents of those to get them cleaned out for a fresh start. Prefetch, as we know, regenerates on reboots, and those two Temp folders collect all sorts of useless crap that isn't needed on a permanent basis. I also wanted to use DISM, but it reported that it couldn't find "Sources", so that didn't go too well. But this Windows Technical Preview is still up and running quite nicely in full-time daily use for its second week now, and I don't find it doing anything all that unusual.

As one of those commenters on that site above said, "We have to expect a few problems, and that's why we're here testing it- to find those, so just make out a Feedback report, and move on with your lives, guys." Good advice!

Here's my favorite comment from that experts' chatter on that website...

 

It was quite wintry here this morning...

This guy not only has a sense of humor, he's got a noisy scraper for his windshield, and that's what first attracted me to look out the window, and then take these pictures. 

I grew up back east, in northern Ontario, where we had nine months winter, two months bad skiing, and one month of summer, during which we got cut out of our 'long-johns' and got our annual bath in a big tin washtub...but I'm digressing again.... 

The point of all this is, having more experience with real winter than most of my city-slicker neighbors here, I know a few tricks, and one of them is for de-icing windshields quickly and painlessly. Save an empty Windex spray-pumper bottle, and put some 99% Isopropyl Alcohol from the drug store in it. Give your frosty windshield a few squirts of that, wait a minute or so, and then the slush can all be removed by your windshield wipers. 

But DON'T put the alcohol in your wiper fluid system - it has a drying effect that makes the wipers squeak and squawk something awful. It doesn't harm rubber, because it's used in aircraft de-icing systems, but on a car windshield it will make noises if used with the wiper system. The good news is, you'll have a germ-free windshield. The bad news is, your air intake will suck in the fumes and those aren't healthy. They're also flammable.

More Programs for Windows Technical Preview, Part Three

This is the 'Superman' of image splicers, and with this one installed, you can forget the rest, because you've now got the very best available, and this comes from Microsoft Research. Before you install it, however, you need a couple of other programs: http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/  and also this one:Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable. And then you can go to this website for Image Composite Editor.

Here, it has just finished a vertical splice of two images, and has just performed an automatic cropping of those, to trim off the uneven edges.

This is the finished result, reduced in size by Irfan's great program Irfanview to fit the screen. In its full size, this image is a bit too large for all of it to be seen on screen at one time.....

And these are just a few of the programs that I consider essential to a properly dressed Windows operating system. I'm pleased to report that Windows Technical Preview runs them all very nicely, and I suggest you try them for yourself. Windows is good, right out of the box, but it's a lot better when fluffed up a little with a few essentials from the web to give it that something extra. Unlike beautiful girls, computer operating systems don't look good naked.


 

More Programs for Windows Technical Preview, Part Two

This is one of my favorites from Windows Past, and it still works just fine. You can find it right here....

It adds an item to your right-click menu, so it's always handy , and you can configure it for custom sizes, and to save or replace originals.

More Programs for Windows Technical Preview, Part One

These days, I'd consider this one essential. It's KeyScrambler, and it fights those key-loggers. There's a 'freebie' version, right here....

 

When I am not playing with Windows: PC-BSD

This is based on Unix, which is the same parent of Apple's OS-X, and like it, this has a pre-selected group of programs which run on it. There are 2,220 Applications available, and 23,790 total Packages. So while you may not easily recognize the names of some of these, if you are using Windows, these do the same kinds of things you would do with Windows. This operating system is being constantly upgraded and regularly updated and it can include a complete suite of office programs, similar to Microsoft Office.

This system is open source, and available free. You may make a donation and  they would appreciate it, but this system will not come with a big price tag, and it works very well. You should try it. But you must put it on a separate partition of your hard-drive, because it formats its part of the drive with a completely different format than is used by Windows, and they don't speak each other's language, without special programs to act as interpreter, and not all of those work well. But if that is not a problem, this is a good system for anyone on a budget, or anyone who would like another operating system to learn and use.

Recommended by Kim Komando (previous post today)

The web page is here.

Please Note: I have not tested this yet, so I cannot comment on it.

More troubleshooting of Stellarium: old vs new versions

I've just been installing, testing, and removing the most recent three versions of Stellarium for Windows 32-bit, and those are the 13.1, 13.0 and 12.4 versions.
Both of the 13.1 and 13.0 versions show that error pop-up asking for a disk to be inserted in Drive F ("F" is a USB port!) - but version 12.4 installs and runs perfectly with no error messages. So I would have to conclude that this problem is a glitch in Stellarium's latest versions, rather than a problem with the new Windows Technical Preview, Build 9879.  Here's a few screenshots from version 12.4 of Stellarium this morning....

Earth as seen from Venus

Latest view from Vancouver...

The same view but with the Atmosphere removed...

An artificial satellite in orbit.

Other satellites' tracks...

There are a lot of extras and plug-ins you can add to the basic program, and it is both fun and educational. You can be your own astronaut with this, and you don't have to use any chemical supplements to get it going or keep you up there. You can find it here.

The Amaryllis and today's snow report, all in one

While I was setting the flower high enough to get some light from the window, even though it faces north, a hummingbird came along, hovered for a few seconds, looking at the flowers, and then flew off again. I always assumed those birds went south for the winter, but there's still at least one around here. And yesterday when I awoke from my afternoon nap, the temperature was 57 F and we were obviously enjoying another 'Pineapple Express' from Hawaii. Looking at the hills out the window, it doesn't look like we're heading into a great ski season around here this year. Those hilltops should be white if we were. But I'm not complaining. At my age, I'll take all the mild weather I can get, thank you.

This morning's Top Ten...

I continue to be surprised that so many of you visit my blog, and I hope you continue to visit. If you have any comments, please click the word Comments below each posting, and add yours. You can use Google Translate to change your own language into English so that I can understand it, please. And enjoy your day, everyone!

More Helpful Hints from Kim Komando

Our thanks to Kim and USA Today for the above.

When this blooms....

...it doesn't waste any time!

'Mistress Lisa' is back on the job....

There's another icon on the Desktop today; Mistress Lisa (Dana Delany) from the movie 'Exit To Eden' in which she played the dominatrix in charge of the resort. I have her suitably employed here as Task Manager. Here's what I said about this on Monday, October 19, 2009, in this blog....

Ferguson: Sanity Returns

Freedom should mean more than having the freedom to make a complete ass of yourself in front of God and all the rest of the known universe. Americans seem to completely ignore the fact that all the rest of us are watching, listening, and being completely disgusted by what's been going on lately. And many of us are wondering if America will ever come to terms with its unsavory past as a slave owning nation, and finally grant real freedom to its African Americans, instead of using them for target practice or cannon fodder or kitchen help. America talks a lot about freedom, but it doesn't seem to understand what that really involves.

Now, News From The Alternate Universe...

Today's Question Everything is: "What'll you bet she's off her meds again?"

The Big Blue Marble...

As viewed from the Sun today....

The most significant thing about this picture, to me, is that the basic color of the Universe is Black, unless you're very close to a light source, like our Sun or some other star. Living in a world with regular daylight and dark periods, we can tend to overlook this basic fact. What am I getting at? Space travel will involve a lot of "night driving". Are we sure we're into that? Not recommended for those who are afraid of the dark, or who just aren't comfortable with it.

Still blooming...

This is the second flowering of the Amaryllis received from Marilyn Jane and Andy earlier this month for my birthday. And no, I'm not quite older than sliced bread (machine-sliced bread began in 1928) but I am older than the discovery of nuclear fission in 1934. I arrived on this nasty little planet in 1932, and that makes me exactly the same age as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And if I'd been born there, you wouldn't be reading this right now, because I'd be too busy spending my money, or admiring the scene on a tropical beach, or maybe attending the camel races. So remember, "Trust in Allah, but tie your camel."

This is how much it has changed since just this morning...(above)

The Snow People...

My attempt at turning this smaller photo into a background didn't come out quite as well as I'd hoped. Neat Image, the noise reduction program, installs and runs fine in Technical Preview, but there's only so much you can do with its "freebie" (Demo) version, so there's still a lot of pixel-clumping in this old image. I can "smudge" most of that away, using PhotoStudio, but I don't have my Wacom pen tablet connected to this PC just now - it's on my other one, and so I couldn't really clean this up as much as it could be. Too bad - it's cute.

Jan Garber and His Orchestra - All I Do is Dream of You (1934)

Jan Garber - Lookie, Here Comes Cookie (1939)

"All I Do is Dream of You" from SADIE MCKEE (1934)

The Lawrence Welk Show: Chopsticks Boogie

Roy Clark - "Roy's Guitar Boogie"

Airships ?

And we could call it the Hindenburg, or maybe the Graf Zeppelin....

Meanwhile, On Mars....

Tell me something didn't explode underneath all this long ago, forcing it upward suddenly, and maybe launching whatever was on top of it into space. Go ahead, tell me, please. I won't believe you, but try anyway.....

Look at this one with your 3-D glasses, and these rocks seem very real....

And this (circled) almost looks like the bottom and part of the cylindrical sides of a cup. What could do that? That's today's Question Everything.

Today's Top Ten

Chrysler and that other outfit....

I've been driving Chrysler products since the 1950s, and I don't care if sixty million Italians do like Fiat, those upholstered roller skates have never been able to keep up to the traffic on North American freeways. Maybe they're OK for going to the local store for more spaghetti or a bottle of vino, but they just can't compete with a real car that has big comfortable seats, air conditioning, and cruise control for those long-haul cross-country trips. Why not? Because for that kind of driving, you need a car with wheels bigger than dinner plates, and an engine that isn't working its ass off to do the speed limit outside town.

And on this side of the pond, Fiat has never been famous for its reliability. Chrysler products, on the other hand, have always been quite reliable. As far back as the 1950s, we had a taxi company in town that used Dodges and Plymouths, and some of those cars went 400,000 miles before they quit. Show me a Fiat that can do that and I'll kiss your ass until you bark like a fox! 

Fun with Backgrounds

Speaking of HP....Is this why their new computer has bugs?

The PC of the future? But will it run Windows?

If that second screen/mat/mouse pad/pen tablet thingy gets debugged so that it can be used as a pen tablet for artwork and writing or drawing on-screen, then Wacom, the makers of very nice graphics tablets, in Vancouver, WA, probably won't like it very much. I have an older model of one of their pen tablets on my other computer, and it still works like a charm, and it's really handy for working on images which need help with their "age spots" and pixel-clumping, or if you want to edit them. You can also use it to write on the monitor screen image, and save that to file if you wish. I wonder if this HP creation will do all that?