Windows 7 install

Yes, tardy again, but the last post took a lot out of me and it has been my birthday.
Right, installing Windows 7. Last time I had a go it was the release candidate I installed on my somewhat aged AMD Athlon XP system. It went on without problem but due to memory constraints (I only had 512mb installed) there was a very annoying lag when launching programs. So I took it off. Now, some twelve months later, I've scraped some more memory together (a pair of 256mb sticks) which takes me up to 1gb and It's Windows 7 Ultimate that's been thrown on, and it was a piece of cake! I slotted the DVD in and formatted the hard drive, cos that's the kind of guy I am. Hit a couple of keys and away it went. The installation proceeded and installed 95% of the drivers I needed and following a reboot it installed the remaining 5% (mainly the Sata and motherboard drivers). That extra memory meant no more program lag and it is a joy to use again. The only Issue I had was that both my optical drives suddenly disappeared! No rhyme or reason for it , one is a Sata drive and the other a plain old Pata. They were there in device manager but not in My Computer, still missing following a reboot so I deleted them and rebooted. This time Windows told me it had found new hardware and was installing drivers for it and my Sata drive reappeared, but still no Pata! I installed a couple more programs, looked in My Computer and there it was, it had sidled back on when I wasn't looking and I still don't know why!
So, if you are thinking about installing Windows 7, go for it. It is more stable, less intrusive and boots up a bit quicker My only caveat being, make sure you have enough memory and that drivers are available for your motherboard. Oh, and back things up before you start.

Eulogy for Cookie; our rabbit.

This blog was supposed to be about my experience of installing Windows 7, a nice follow on from my previous post but, in that great way that life has, of messing up your plans, here is something else.

Cookie was our house rabbit, we got him, at the insistence of our offspring, about 5 years ago from a rescue centre, an adventure in its self and the only way to get a rabbit. In our house there isn't a cable he hasn't chewed, a hardback's spine he's not torn off and barely a record he's not mutilated! He chewed the trousers of visitors, threw your shoes about if they were in his way, grunted at you and tipped his food everywhere! At times there felt to be more hair in the house than one rabbit could possibly produce!He was generally a grumpy old bugger but he was our rabbit. Peanuts in their shell were one of his favorite foods and he would stand with his front paws on the side of his cage, staring at you until he got one! And when he sat back on his haunches and washed his face, to quote our eldest "Awwww; He's soooo cute!" Every now and then he would run around the house and garden and explode into the air like some furry ninja; then lay down for a very long rest. He and I occupied the same space for a lot of the time, me at the computer and Cookie sat close by, or running around my feet, as rabbits are wont to do and as a consequence I probably talked to him more than is healthy to. Last week Cookie went off his food and looked unwell, a visit to the vets followed where overgrown teeth and an infection were diagnosed but despite antibiotics and our best attempts, his condition worsened, developed into septicemia and on Monday morning we had little choice other than to have him put to sleep.
This post is just to say that we miss him, probably more than we expected to and won't forget him.

If you are considering getting a rabbit please talk to someone who owns one first, then check for your local rescue centre before buying from a pet shop, your vet or the RSPCA should be able to help locate one. Our local one is http://www.suesrabbitrescue.org.uk/index.html which is based in Dewsbury.

I was supposed to do what!

Yes, yes I know it's been a while (almost 2 years) but I promise to try harder this time.
Since my last posting I have become an exhibited artist (only once), we had to shut the shop (damn you, recession), children continue to grow older (and cost more). My wife works harder than she really ought (thank you), we have seen the space shuttle take off (amazing), lost family, and gained friends ( ).
Right enough of the brackets, we're almost up to date, just to add that I am currently studying to be a PC technician which means that soon; I'll be able to charge people for fixing their computers.
Just before Easter I helped a friend re install windows XP on his somewhat elderly machine, when I say helped, he dropped it off at tea time and picked it up the day after! The installation disc was an original, pre any service pack, Microsoft Windows XP. Once I'd tweaked the bios and downloaded a couple of drivers for the motherboard, off I went. And almost six hours later I was still wenting! I had forgotten just how much XP has altered since it came out at the end of 2001, SP2 and SP3 have ripped out and rebuilt most of it's internals along with the Media player and Internet explorer, and more security patches than I care to think about. All in all a total download of over 1 Gig! If I had thought about it a little differently, I have a slip streamed version, which is an updated disc with almost everything already in it, which I could have installed in around an hour! But I didn't. It did, however remind me that no matter how much stuff looks the same, under the bonnet, a different beast may lurk; and to spend a couple more minutes thinking.
Hey! That sound a bit like the end of "Thought for today" Can I be on radio!