This is more of a photo blog, the image below is IE6 & IE8 running on the same machine (OptiPlex 740 with Windows 7 RC and VirtualXP) at the same time.  If only 7 was actually gold and deployed to my desktops…  I wouldn’t have to worry about running another machine just for IE6.  Someday…  Someday…

So I joined up to beta test Windows 7, more for the fun and distraction of it than anything.  I downloaded both the 32 and 64 bit ISOs and burned em’ to DVD for installation.  Below is a basic walkthrough of the installer and a fix for a problem that occurs on my test hardware (Dell Optiplex 740)

7’s install is as straight forward as Vista’s.  You choose your language, time and currency format and your keyboard layout and then accept the license.  Next you choose your install type (I chose custom, not upgrade).  Following that, you select your destination partition (I’m installing on a dual boot system and I created the partition in advance) and let it go.  The installer copies the files to the hard disk and reboots the machine for the first time.

This is where the fun begins!  The machine boots and you get the fancy Windows particle animation, some notifications of reg and system updates, a message reading that Windows is completing the installation and then… a black screen with just a hint of color in the top row of pixels.  The installer is still working as indicated by DVD and hard disk drive access.  Eventually, the machine will reboot again and attempt to load Windows, you’ll be left at the same black screen.

The problem is that there’s a driver update required for the video chipset to work properly, here’s how I got into Windows in order to install the update.

Note: I was able to get higher resolutions working as long as I didn’t select 1280×1024.  Since that’s what I (and the OS) wanted, I went for the updated driver.

1. Restart
2. Press F8 to pull up advanced boot menu
3. Select Enable low-resolution video (640×480)
   
4. Setup will continue… (albeit in a low resolution)
5. Give Setup the information it needs (account, PC name, password and so on)
6. Run Windows Update and install anything required
7. Restart when prompted, be sure to select low-resolution mode during boot..
8. Run Windows Update again
9. Install the optional NVIDIA updates (there’s only 1 update if you installed w7 64bit)
10. Post install, Windows will set the res to 1280×1024 and you’re done.

That’s all folks, start installing your apps and see what works

Amusing video…  http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1886349

… and other than that, I’ve got nothing else to say at the moment

OK, so I had a fun ass day. Yesterday I sent a message to the GNHLUG folks so I could get a recommendation on an IMAP server. I got a few and had to decide between Dovecot and Courier. Both are open source solutions and the winner will be running on my Debian Etch (Linux for those that don’t know) box (which is in a VMware virtual machine).

I decided to implement IMAP so that I could hit my mail from multiple clients instead of just mutt. While I have no problem just using mutt, I can’t ask Natalie to. It’s a console program (no pretty clicky menus) and driven by keyboard shortcuts that have meaning for me and nobody else in the world. I have an email folder that gets all of the notifications of online statements from all of the people we have to give our money to each month. I want her to be able to look at it if she chooses. Yeah, I could forward messages to her mail account or go about this any other number of ways, but setting up a mail server gives me other benee’s and it’s just fun to play with this stuff.

I won’t bore you with the details of configuring the server or making the config changes I needed in my mail clients, but I will tell you that I went with Dovecot and that both mutt and Thunderbird are amazingly flexible and powerful tools. I loved them before, I want to marry them now.

Since I’ve been using mutt for a couple of years now, I’ve grown very accustomed to managing email from 9 accounts (and a lot of it) with folders in one program. I’ve got it set up so that a particular email address and PGP key is selected based on what folder I’m composing/replying to messages in. It’s VERY handy. I never have to worry about which email address is responding to what list or friend. As long as my mail filtering is working properly, my client does the work. That all probably sounds confusing, so as an example, if I’m replying to a message in my Gmail folder, then the program knows that I want to reply with my @gmail.com address and the corresponding PGP key. I wanted the same capability in my GUI client. Enter Thunderbird and the “Enigmail” and “Folder Account” add-ons. It allows me to do just that, I simply need to select which identity to assign to a particular folder and I’m done. It really is that easy. It takes a few minutes to configure your identities and the GPG keys that go with them, a few changes to folder properties and BAM!

Folks, try doing that with Outlook. I’ll wait… Oh you couldn’t? Not surprising, MS doesn’t think you want to use PGP so it’s not an option. Never mind how common and effective it is. You’ll have to go out and buy PGP Desktop. No thanks, I’ll stick with the open source programs that have great devs & users who contribute to the project. The combination just produces far superior tools. That’s *almost* all from the Outlook bashing front for today, but there’ll prolly be more later. I’ve been using it at work for a few weeks now and it SUCKS. The ONLY thing it does right is integrate mail and calendaring if you have a MAPI backend, other than that… meh. There, now that really is the last of the OL smash for today.

So I now have all I wanted from my mail server and I’m super pleased. It took almost no time to set up. It would have gone even faster if I had any sed or shell scripting skills. Ahh well, something to work on.

So, looks like I’ve really been keeping up with this blogging thing. Last time was August 3rd…. Well, to be honest, that was the last time I posted. I see a draft here about a new laptop and Vista that is waiting for completion.. I’m gonna count that as a 75% complete blog session (my blog, my rules).

I just spent all of 10 minutes installing yet another Wordpress blog, this time for my dad. I can’t get over just how easy it is to create one. All you need is the ability to create a MySQL user and database (cPanel on any Linux hosting provider gives you that), FTP or (preferably) shell access to the server and the ability to edit a text file.

Wordpress has a famous 5 minute install that you can follow to do the job, the extra 5 minutes (in my case) is used up going back into cPanel and then phpMyAdmin to rename the default “admin” account to something else and to tweak the permalinks as I just can’t stand the default. Poof! You got yourself a new blog and you’re ready to share your opinions and inane blabber with the rest of the world!

Check out my Dad’s blog, he’ll be posting topics he covers on his weekly WATD radio show.