Vista – Software Installation

I was unable to install the Aviva Antivirus software that I use in XP, but could do this with AVG so I can live with it. The cool thing is that
Vista broke in and told me that there was a known issue and that it was not going to work, so at least it wasn’t the whole trial and error, wild goose chase routine so beloved by Windows users.

One issue I have had is with my great bit torrent client uTorrent where I get consistent problems with torrents being refused access to the underlying files. They seem to be downloading nicely and then I get a system error and they stop downloading – this needs more investigation and I will keep you posted.

Vista – Drivers

One issue that has not improved dramatically is the stupid inability of vista to recognise my Promise Raid array on my Asus A8V deluxe motherboard. With XP it was necessary to sit patiently to hit F6 and install the driver from a 3.5 inch disk. Fortunately this is not longer the case, as I broke one of the pins on the IDE plughole on my 3.5 inch drive. I was able to load it from my backup hard drive, but I could also have done it from CD or from my iPod – so that is a big plus point over XP.

I also found Vista ready drivers for my nVidia graphics card and my SoundBlaster soundcard which seem to work with no problems. My somewhat ancient TV tuner card also needed th driver loaded, something I think is a bit dissapointing given that Microsoft is trying to make it easier to use.

Windows Vista – a trial run

I have had the opportunity to test drive the newest version of Microsoft’s newest operating system,
Vista and I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised. You could argue that this is not in its self a surprise as anyone reading the tech press will have rock bottom expectations. 

Installation: A tip is that you can not just burn the ISO to a DVD RW disc as this gets to a certain point and hangs and hangs. A 2^nd tip is that if you go into your bios first and set the date forward, say 100 years, install Vista and then set the time back you get 100 years before it demands activation. This schoolboy error makes me worry about the quality of all the other security features, as I am sure Microsoft are a tad more concerned with the safety of their bottom line than with my files. Anyway…

Bit Torrent Bulletin boards

Bit torrent bulletin-boards are a really great source of torrents. I found one called Diwana which is amazing – it has clearly been set up specifically for Australians and New Zealanders and when I download rugby games etc., I often max out my download bandwidth at around 350 KB/s. I suppose it is because people are happy to seed things they care about for people they feel some sort of kinship for. I also try to seed as much as possible, but seldom have anything being uploaded which I can’t quite work out. Unfortunately registration is often closed.
Demonoid is just a tracker but also has some great stuff

Bit Torrent Heaven

One of the coolest thing about Bit Torrent is the ability to download just about anything from just about anywhere. Now I am Australian and one of the things we care most about is Aussie sport. Unfortunately the rest of the world has failed to share this passion and insist on watching their own teams and games – hard to believe I know! As I live in Europe now, this was something of a hardship until I discovered (after long and painsatking research) a number of limited membership websites that host torrents dedicated to Australian sport – AussieTorrents and Diwana. Even better, I am able to download at incredible speeds – often to the max of my internet connection at 250 kb/s. I think this is due to , due to the shared culture and goodwill between these like minded people. I personally seed back everything I download. In theory, whatever your passion, as long as there are others who like it you can get whatever you want whenever you want it. The future is now.

Connection error in Battlefield 1942 caused by NVIDIA drivers.

I am having a little trouble coming to terms with this one, but it looks awfully like my NVIDIA drivers were causing connection errors and lags in BF42. I can more or less isolate to the drivers because of the following (somewhat unintentional) experiment. I was having the error on my normal XP Home installation, so I did a clean install to a new partition and uploaded the bare minimum stuff to get it all going including the NVIDIA drivers.

 When I still got the problem, I decided to reinstall an old NVIDIA driver as I had suspected that the problems started when I upgraded, although I had also gone back to the old driver on the old installation. I then noticed that by default the driver was saving to my C: drive – or the old installation, not the E drive. When I changed this… the problems got significantly better immeadiately.

 But why?

Why XP is bad and Linux is good. Another re-install!

Now that I have been using Ubuntu Linux for a while now, I can see that my first impressions were correct. Ubuntu is just so much simpler and easier to use than XP and I think I know why. The problem with XP is that it is either treating the user like an absolute idiot or it is infuriatingly complicated. And stuff just doesn't work – like many users I have just about given up trying to solve any problems, I just do a clean re-install. This time it was my internet connection going in pulses, causing massive lag in games… but who cares? Easier to just kill the whole thing and start again.

I have now done this so often that I have a great solution for making the process as painless as possible. I have used a program called nlite to create my own XP disk. This utility enables me to create a disk that once i select where I want windows installed I can just leave the room and come back to find it done – it is called an unattended setup.

Nlite basically rips the XP cd to your hard drive, removes stuff you don't want (messenger, Outlook, Finnish keybard, chinese language support anyone?), adds stuff you do (like the RAID driver I have to manually add from a floppy every time I reinstall) and allows you to enter all the options just once. So you input the serial number and all those other details just once and it does the rest. After you are finished it saves as an ISO image file which can be burned to a CD. Awesome, especially if you end up doing this all the time.

The last time I did a reinstall I also added an extra partition to the hard drive where I have stored all my personal files and the ones I usually download from the web,like firefox, thunderbird, nero, alcohol, plus all the patches and mods for me to get straight back playing BF 1942 straight away. And I don't have to sit there like a muppet reading Microsoft's rather ironic advertisements about how XP is safe, stable and a new cure for cancer. Don't they realise that half the time you see these messages, it is precisely because XP is not up to it. Shame it is the best platform for gaming.

Freeware Programs.

A really good list of freeware programs and stuff.

U Torrent Optimising

This looks like a good guide to optimising U Torrent:

uTorrent was very slow for me until I applied a few suggested by the linked website. The key was recognizing the potentially multiple levels of firewalls and places the ports need to be opened at. Basically, at XP firewall level, at firewall level and probably at the router level as well. No one is going to just work this one out by themselves, but following these steps it becomes a dream.

Google Calendar – Awesome

OK, the interface is a bit clunky, but I can now have one web based calendar at home and at work and I can easily upload ready made calendars. I have to say I would love to have the ability to synchronise it to outlook. So far I have:

• Local Public Holidays
• World Cup Fixtures… Go Australia
• Super 14 and Tri Nations Rugby matches