Thursday, October 22, 2009

Windows 7 Clean Install with Upgrade Media

 

Quick post here, since I only have minimal software installed at this point.

I have deleted my partitions, installed Windows 7 from a family pack upgrade disc without a key code, and then reinstalled over the top as an upgrade with the key code.  then I activated it successfully.  The I tested the activation by installing Microsoft Security Essentials.

 

This answers the big question of installing!

L8er!

10-25-09 :  update

I also did a custom install on a machine running Windows 7 RC.  took the upgrade license key without any trouble.  later i will delete the windows.old folder.

Whopper. Really………..

 

bk_poster091014_01

 

 

 

Only in Japan!

    Engadget has a story up this morning about this weeks Weird burger from Japan.  The Windows 7 Whopper!  7 meat patties!    

   The first 30 customers each day get it for 777 yen, around 9 dollars.  After that it goes up to the set price of 1450 yen, around 17 dollars.  This thing looks like a heart attack on a stick.   How could you even get a corner of it in your mouth?

  While visiting Japan last year, I tried the “Mega Mac” ( a Big Mac with 4 patties instead of 2), and the Teriyaki Burger. Both offered by the Japanese McDonalds stores.  They were awesome, but the Mega Mac was really more than I cold handle.  This Towering Meat Stack is almost frightening!

Monday, October 19, 2009

And Another Thing……….

 

Andanotherthing

 

May 11, 2001 marked a sad moment in time.  We lost Douglas Adams, the noted author of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. We thought our hitchhiking was done………  Fast forward to October 12, 2009.

      Eoin Colfer has picked up the towel and moved the story farther down the spiral into madness.  I have never read his previous works, the “Artemis Fowl” series, so I had no idea what to expect of this story.   “And Another Thing” picks up right at the end of “Mostly Harmless”, which I admit had a weak ending.  Douglas had been quoted as saying he wanted to continue the story a bit farther, not leaving the bleak state of affairs at Stavro Mueller’s Beta.  What we have here is a charming mix of Vogons, Grebulons, Deathrays, and “Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged”.  Arthur Dent and Company careening from improbability to the truly bizarre.

      This is the first of two series that are being taken on by a new author after the original passed away.  I expected that this book would not sound like Douglas.  Feel like Douglas.  The best description of the writing style I can think of is that here we are looking in on our old friends, but through a different window.  The characters are well portrayed, and familiar.  The writing style is certainly different, but comfortably weird.

     I particularly liked “Left Brain”, and his odd relationship with Zaphod.  The side trip to Valhalla was certainly entertaining, and almost links to Douglas’ other main character “Dirk Gently”.  One thing I have noticed, the “Heart of Gold” is no longer described as a sleek running shoe.  In fact, the shape of the vessel seems to never be specified at all.  I wonder if that is an effort not to distance this novel from the portrayal in the movie.  I also picked up on the absence of Marvin, the Paranoid Android.  Why was he left out?

    I will stop here, so as not to spoil it for you.  If you have enjoyed the other stories about the guide, then I think you will enjoy this one too.  I got mine through Audible.com, and Simon Jones’ reading was excellent.  Good voicing of the characters, and conveys a sense of being there that reading from a page does not.  It helps that Simon Jones was the guy who played Arthur Dent in the radio broadcast back in the day.

   “And Another Thing” gives us a little more insight into the whole sort of general mish-mash.  Get it.  I plan to listen to it again soon.  I expect I didn't catch every weird reference the first time through, and I am looking forward to it.

I give it a solid 42 stars out of 10!

Monday, October 5, 2009

Blue Heron

A Blue Heron has taken up residence in the creek.  He can be seen on rainy days @ the low water crossing for Hatch Rd in Lorena.  This is the best shot so far…….   Have you ever seen a bird’s tongue?

Blue Heron-1

Friday, October 2, 2009

Bad Weather is Good for Photography!

 

Yesterday large thuderstorms passed just to the north and south of us here in Bruceville.  We got nearly no rain, but a truly excellent light show!  The storm to the north had most of its lightning inside the thunderhead, giving the clouds a cool backlit effect.   This went on for nearly an hour of constant lightning with little or no thunder reaching me.  (24mm  f/4  ISO 400  9 seconds)  Nikon D80 + Sigma 24-60mm EX.

 

 

The storm to the south was a bit farther away, and appeared hazy.  Like there was lots of dust or maybe thin clouds in the air between me and the storm.  The TV signal tower in the middle distance provides a nice setting for these pictures.

(24mm f/6  ISO 400 8.9 seconds)

Click on the pictures to see the full size version