gottahavacuppamocha

Windows 7 seems like a suitable break from the idiotically named Windows XP and Windows Vista, though with the Enterprise version, I keep getting this image of Star Trek in my head. The university I work for has a volume license with Microsoft, so the computer technicians are offered most of their operating systems for free. The exceptions seem to be their server OSs, for which we would have to buy licenses, though I think we get some sort of discount there.

Windows 7 Enterprise screenshot

I setup Windows 7 Enterprise in VMWare Fusion 2 on my MacBook Pro. The idea is that if the installation went bad, I could always delete that VM. Aside from that, this gives me a chance to play with the operating system before deploying it to any production machines.

At work we’ve mostly stayed away from Vista for a variety of reasons, mostly because people are familiar with XP and some are very resistant to change and heard a lot of bad things (rightly or wrongly) about Vista. Windows 7 looks a lot like Vista, but doesn’t behave in such a paranoid manner. The only real problem I’ve had so far is the audio, but that might be a VMWare issue.

The Administrator account is disabled by default, which is good for many systems, but it’s something I use fairly often, so I enabled it and gave it a password. Joining the system to the university’s Active Directory wasn’t too difficult. I am using the 64-bit version of the OS, so some software doesn’t cope with it very well. Symantec Endpoint Protection didn’t work for either the 32-bit or 64-bit versions, though I think this is because Win 7 is too new.

The only benchmark an OS has to pass is me. Most of the users in the department don’t do graphically challenging tasks, like video editing or 3D rendering. Instead, they mostly use Word, Excel, and Outlook. My main objectives are to see how well it will work with Active Directory, accept Group Policy, and handle Office.

The installation went easily. It didn’t ask for a license key, so I thought maybe it was embedded in the ISO somewhere. Nope. After I clicked on System in the Control Panel, I found it has a temporary key that’s only good for a few days. The university doesn’t have the Key Server going yet, so I entered the MAK key, which is intended for computer that might not access the network for long periods of time. I don’t run VMs that often and don’t plan to start with this one, so the MAK key seemed appropriate. The MAK key will probably be good for enterprise laptops, but the KMS version will be good for desktops.

I have this idea based on what I’ve seen with Windows 7 and IE8. IE6 was a standard many people grew accustomed to. Then Microsoft comes out with IE7, which was so radical it freaked people out. People stayed away from it or uninstalled it (“It was if a million voices cried out in terror…”). IE8 has elements of IE6 and IE7, so it might be more acceptable to some users (or not). Likewise, Windows Vista was a radical change from XP and freaked people out. If they didn’t freak out, they probably got annoyed as Vista popped up a warning with every flick of the mouse, warning about the potential security risks. Windows 7 still looks a lot like Vista, but behaves as XP should. It seems more secure (knock on wood – it is Windows) but not as paranoid as Vista. With these changes in mind, I have high hopes for Office 2010, due next year. Office 2003 was, and is, a standard. The look and feel wasn’t that different from Office 2000 of Office 97. People were comfortable with Office 2003. Then Microsoft springs Office 2007 on the masses. It’s radical. It has a ribbon and no menus. If given a choice between Office 2003 and Office 2007, people usually opt for 2003, in my experience. However, since Microsoft may be on a roll, that’s why I have hopes for the next version of Office. But, I digress…

Overall, Windows 7 seems like a version of Vista that behaves as XP should. It asks before installing something, as an OS should, but doesn’t ask about everything, like Vista seems to do. I still have to play with Win 7 some more, but these are some first impressions of it.

I don’t know about this, but it seems strange/odd. Maybe it’s the economy or something.

At work, I ordered an HP LaserJet printer from a vendor a couple of weeks ago. Shipments from this vendor usually arrive in a few days, so yesterday I sent them an email asking where they expected to ship the printer. Two weeks is a long time for this vendor, so sending an inquiry seemed appropriate. Their reply was received a few hours later, saying there were supply problems and HP notified them it would be 6 – 8 weeks before the printer shipped. That’s a lifetime, so I’ll be shopping around at other vendors for something that isn’t HP. The annoyance factor is their website doesn’t mention if something is in stock or not. It just has the “Add to cart” button.

Last week, I ordered a replacement video card for my MacPro. A day or two later, the company sent me an email saying it would be a few extra days because they had it on backorder with the supplier. Yesterday, they sent me an email saying they were having a hard time finding a source for this card.

If each order was late separately, it wouldn’t seem so strange. This makes me wonder if there is a shortage of something going on. Shipping? Silicon? Simple coincidence?

I’m mainly noting this for posterity, because I couldn’t find a quick answer online and finally figured it out after a day or two.

Last year I setup a MediaWiki site for work to take the place of a site one of the resident’s had setup. The site’s overall look-and-feel has to comply with standards from the School of Medicine, and this year they’ve redesigned everything. I like the school’s new design concept, since the old one was starting to feel dated. Still, it takes work to convert a site from one theme to another.

The previous design took up almost the entire width of the browser window, which means MediaWiki could easily accommodate 6 columns of image thumbnails. The downside is it’s hard coded into the MediaWiki code. It’s a variable, but not one that’s documented. Normally, variables that are meant to be changed in MediaWiki are meant to be included in the LocalSettings.php file or the includes/DefaultSettings.php file. However, in the includes/ImageGallery.php file is $mPerRow = x; near the beginning of the file, where x is the number of columns. It can be set to whatever is appropriate, so I set it to 4 for the new layout.

The moral of the tutorial is that it pays to look in unusual places if you are hunting for some hidden variable.

I’ve never been that big on warranty repairs until becoming an LSP (IU-speak for a computer tech). There are rare occasions where a part fails and I have to call up a computer company for a replacement. Once or twice they even sent a technician out to do the job, mainly because they were laptops and not easily repairable.

Last January I got an Apple MacBook Pro for my own personal use. Over the past several months I noticed a smudge or something on the screen, but it wouldn’t come out when I cleaned it. It’s easily seen against light backgrounds (like word processors and spreadsheets). Also, over the last few weeks, I noticed the lid was getting a bit more floppy, so today I took the laptop in to the local Apple Store to get it repaired before the warranty expires. After reading some stories in a few online forums, I was secretly hoping they would just give me a new laptop, since they didn’t have the part in stock, but it wasn’t the case. They said it would take 5 – 7 days for the repair, though that puts it into Christmas territory. They will be replacing the whole lid apparently, not just the screen. I’m hoping it will be done by the 24th, since I want to take off from the 23rd to the 25th. I’ve got a lot of work on the 26th, 29th, and 30th.

Between school and work, I haven’t written much here lately. However, there’s a huge backlog of Review Haiku to post, so it’s time to start it up again.

Is Solaris life?
Russian answer to Kubrick
Life is existence

Solaris at Rotten Tomatoes
Solaris at IMDB

Rating:  

A few years ago, I posted some 3D models of mine to TurboSquid. While they take a cut, they pay every so often. However, my stuff has sold so infrequently I never got paid, because it was the amount was too small to make it worthwhile cutting a check. On Friday, I got my first check from TurboSquid.

For sales going back to 2006, I got paid a whopping $26.50. I get to set the price of my models, which aren’t that expensive, but it since the selection I have to offer is fairly small, it takes awhile to sell stuff. However, now that I’ve been paid, I guess that makes me a professional 3D modeller.

Coincidentally, perhaps serendipitously, a week ago I bought a Cintiq. I bought a regular tablet a month ago, and after I bought it I started reading about the Cintiq, which I had never heard of before. After a lot of thought back and forth, I broke down and bought one. Started doing some basic work with it this weekend, and was amazed at how good it works. Drawing with it in Photoshop worked great, though I probably didn’t tax Photoshop’s capabilities. However, zooming in or out a few times led to a delayed refresh, so it took the screen a few seconds to catch up with where I was. I’ll be working with t some more this week, between studying, work, and classes.

I need to study more. Today we had an oral exam in French, while we had a regular exam last week. While we were on break in class this week the teacher handed out our graded exams from last week, and I am a bit disappointed in myself. I got a 79. Since I missed a week where we started a new chapter, I missed some information, but I thought I had it covered by reading the pages that were covered. To my thinking the grade is a high C or a low B, but it reminds me that I should have spent more time studying.

This week was probably slightly better. For one part we just had to read/record a short poem in French and we were given the text we had to read. For the next section, we had were paired up with another student and we had to have a short conversation in French. We were given English instructions for what the conversation was supposed to cover, e.g. “Find out the last time he/she went out.” One student asked questions while the other student answered. We can write out our questions and answers ahead of time, but we cannot have them in front of us when we are doing the recording (it’s a computerized language lab). Though it’s not too surprising, I had a hard time remembering what I came up with, and I also suck at spontaneous conversation in French. I do okay writing it out, as long as I have a book in front of me so I can check my work, but speaking French spontaneously is something I have to work on.

In Second Language Acquisition last semester, there was a lengthy discussion (that kept popping up throughout) about using the L1 in the L2 classroom. At early levels it is needed, but at some point it becomes a crutch for the student. In the second semester of Beginning French we are to the point where we should be able to have some simple conversations, but have problems expressing ourselves because we still don’t have a large vocabulary and don’t know all of the rules of grammar. I need to hit the books a bit harder.

Also, since I got Poser last week, it has proven to be big time waster. I was never very interested in gaming, but I think this is a similar situation. To create props, clothes, morphs, etc for Poser, you have to export the model from Poser as a generic file (I used .obj) and import it in a different 3D editing program. I used Blender in this case. Surprisingly, even for a speedy computer like my Mac, Blender takes a long time to import .obj files – like 1/2 hour or more. Once it is imported, I save the file as a .blend file so it will load quicker next time.

After the post about battery life, I found myself making sticky notes with the time I unplugged the laptops to see how long it takes for the error messages to pop up. I also started doing that with Blender importing .obj files. I thought it was strange that I did that, because it seems a bit anal in retrospect. Although if I actually compiled the data in a spreadsheet and graphed the data, that would be a bit too much, so I guess I’m okay for now.

I’ve been sick most of this week. La grippe is French for “the flu,” which is most likely what I had. The coughing is still going on, but the muscle pain is mostly gone. I went into work each day, but only stayed an hour on Wednesday and until about 3:00 on Thursday. I skipped both classes this week because I didn’t feel up to going.

Wednesday was bad. I had a slight fever when I went into work and I didn’t sleep well the night before. I only had a few things to do, so I only stayed an hour. I went home and took a couple of generic Nyquil “Liquicaps” and hit the sack. I was only able to sleep in one or two hour spurts because I would wake up with coughing fits. I would get up, get a drink of water, keep coughing, and not be able to get back to sleep for awhile. I was too tired to want to read or watch a movie, but too alert to fall asleep. Every so often I would check my temperature with a thermometer (old school mercury and glass style). When I got home from work it was about 102, but through the night it progressed to 104. I debated on going to the hospital, but decided to do what I could to bring the fever down. I had been using a thick comforter. I tossed that aside and grabbed a lightweight fleece blanket. I also dropped the thermostat in my apartment down a few degrees. A damp rag over my forehead and closed eyelids seemed to help, but the fever always warmed it up after a few minutes. I also took 500mg acetaminophen an hour after taking the Nyquil, because I think it is supposed to be anti-inflammatory. By the morning the fever was around 100. I went into work feeling better but not great.

After work Thursday, I stayed up a little bit but tried to get some sleep to make up for the lack of quality sleep the night before. It didn’t work. Again, despite the Nyquil and some acetaminophen, I still kept waking up with coughing fits. I went into work on Friday at my normal time, but my body was beat. I didn’t feel sick, but exhausted. However, I think this was mainly a residual effect of the Nyquil, because I felt better in the afternoon. At home after work, I wasn’t tired so I surfed the net for a bit and took a hot bath for the muscle aches. When I went to sleep it was the same thing as the previous two nights, though the spurts seemed to go a little longer. I woke up at 5:30 on Saturday because of the alarm on my watch and didn’t bother to go back to bed. Surfed some more, took another bath, and around 8:30am I laid down for a nap. This time I was able to sleep for four hours and woke up very refreshed. It was the best sleep I had had in days. The downside is I wasn’t tired enough to go to bed early, which is why I am writing this in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday. I hope next week is a better one, but I’ve got a ton of homework to do.

I am fatigued, though a better translation of the title might be “I am tired.” For me though, I mainly feel fatigued. Last night I went to bed around 6:30 or 7:00 with a little sinus pressure. It’s been rainy here, so that might have something to do with it. I woke up at around 1:30 am to some lady in the alley shouting at somebody. I didn’t hear them, but she was going on for awhile. I couldn’t get back to sleep after that, but I slept well and felt mostly refreshed so I didn’t care too much. I got up, turned on the computer and started surfing.

Since I’ve been awake, I’ve been coughing a fair amount. It’s not a sore throat, but it feels like a little tickle at the back of the throat and drinking coffee and water hasn’t made it go away. Around 6:00 this morning, I headed to work early. Shortly after I got into the office I noticed my whole body felt fatigued and my head felt a little congested. While I’ve felt much more congested, my body felt as if it had been beaten up or as if I’d been working out for a few hours. Still coughing too. I took some extra-strength Tylenol hoping the muscle pain would go away, but it didn’t. I stuck it out until a little after lunch then headed home, where I am now.

My body is tired but my mind is not. And after drinking copious amounts of coffee and water to try to fix the cough, neither is my bladder :-/ I may take a hot bath to see if that helps with the muscle pain. After that, I don’t know.

Crazy day today. Work was busy and will be busy tomorrow. It was mostly cloudy and drizzly today, but the temps got into the low 50’s so it wasn’t too bad. In the evening, during class, a thunderstorm rolled through and there was a tornado warning. We finished class about half an hour early during a break in the weather. Good thing too. By the time I got home it was snowing.

To top it off, about an hour after I got back to the apartment, the fire alarm went off. Strange, because we had a fire drill at work yesterday. Anyway, I put on a jacket and shoes, pretty much wearing what I was wearing earlier, but the temps were in the low 30’s and it was very windy. Most people who left the building went to their cars, but since I don’t have one, I just sort of huddled next to a minivan, using it as a windbreak. The drizzle started turning to ice, so the roads will be chaotic tomorrow.

Right now, weather.com report the temperature as 14 degrees F with a wind chill factor of -5 F. The wind is supposed to continue tomorrow, so it will be an interesting trek into work. Luckily, no classes for me tomorrow, though I have a test in French on Thursday.