Category: Geekdom

So the boss man wants me to remove the pre-installed Windows XP games (solitaire, Minesweeper, etc…), but I was thinking instead of removing them, I should just overwrite the *.exe files with something obnoxious and leave the menus on the start menu, heck, maybe even put icons on the desktop to see how much time people are really trying to waste.

I know I’d have to work around Windows File Protection to overwrite some of the game files, but that’s easy enough.

Anybody have any ideas? I’d love to have some fun with this. Something that would track the clicks, keep a report on people trying to run the game, email management, offer a blackmail buyout option if said employee doesn’t want management to see that he or she have been trying to play, etc… .

So long story short, there’s a chance I might be getting a new laptop to replace my laptop that will be handed off to a co-worker. While I can get the new laptop with Windows XP Pro, I’m debating whether I should go with Vista (would have to be Ultimate or Business edition because of the Windows Domain/Active Directory access I need) since Microsoft is going to be phasing out sales of XP in the next few months. My brief experiences with Vista on this laptop (in a temporary dual boot) weren’t all that great, and this certainly isn’t a slouch hardware-wise, and that pretty much ran in line with every other Vista vs. XP rundown. The problem is that most of those XP vs. Vista comparisons are from when Vista was first released. So after some searching, I found this one that shows improvements in Vista with apps and games (with a Vista service pack release candidate installed).

So, you power users out there (and I’m talking folks who run more than a few programs at once and actually use memory and CPU-intensive programs): What do you think? Have you really pushed Vista to its limit? Do you have any applications that you need that don’t work in Vista? While I’m not much of a gamer (I don’t have that kind of time), application performance is key for me, especially in things like the Adobe Creative Suite (CS2) where I spend a great deal of time, rendering, editing, and dealing with dozens of RAW images at a time. But I want a decent video card so I don’t waste system memory on video processing. I also have a lot of other little tools that I’d try to use, most of which will need to work (some of them I can live without, but many I can’t because of the jack-of-all-trades nature of my work).

I will be getting a dual core CPU, a 7200 hard drive, and at least 2 GBs of RAM (along with a DirectX10 GPU), but I probably will avoid the x64 version of Vista, simple because of driver issues — I have to deal with a lot of old and obscure hardware and peripherals here, and I have a feeling that the 64-bit version might give me issues. I don’t have a 64-bit CPU to test with, otherwise I would beforehand (that, and I’ve heard that CS2 doesn’t like Vista64 at all, but somebody correct me if I’m wrong).

Any thoughts from anybody? As usual, I’ll be shopping at Sager for my laptop.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I do have a fully legal copy of Vista Business edition (given to me by a friend of mine that has OEM contacts all over the place) that, should I ever feel the need to, I could upgrade on top of a Windows XP Pro install.

Another bunch of geek links for everybody:

• Remove Optional and Probably Unnecessary Windows Vista Components.
• How to find a lost Blackberry with Berry Locator.
• And the worst name for a handy utility: FART for Find And Replace Text (a Grep-like command line tool for Windows).
• Customizing default styles in MovableType 4 (I’ll upgrade this site one of these days).
• Low hassle ways to secure your computer system.
• Extending the life of your iPod battery.
• Speed up disk access by disabling Last Access Update in Windows XP.
• That’s one geeky notepad.
• Get tabs for your PuTTY.
• Strip down Vista with vLite.
• 11 Power Tips for Gmail.
• Certificates for those special geeks in your life (I’m actually eligible for this one).
• Build a PC for $200.
• What can you build with 600 lines of code?
• Microsoft says Vista more secure than XP, OSX and Linus (and they have pretty graphs to prove it).
• Disable the PC speaker beep in Windows.
• That’s one tiny Bluetooth adapter.
• An amazing write-up on how you can add everything to your eeePC including two four port USB hubs, internal GPS, Bluetooth, 56k modem, FM audio transmitter, 4gb USB flash drive and a 801.11a/b/g/n card.
• How to remotely shut down your computer.
• Disable Vista’s Aero interface before running an application.
• Top 10 Underhyped Web Apps.

Speaking of geek, I’m looking for one of those 1U KVM consoles. We’re setting up a fancy rack of servers here at the office (as I’ve mentioned), and I’ve gotten a hold of most of what I need, but I’d love to rack-mount one last bit of stuff: My monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

I currently have a standalone 1U KVM, but it’s a bit clunky (it needs tape to hold down the power button). I’d prefer one of those all-in-one 1u (or even 2U) KVM/LCD/Keyboard/Trackpad things that slide into a rack. It’s needs to be 8 port, have at least 5 cables, and the LCD needs to support at least 1024×768. Otherwise, As long as it works and doesn’t cost me brand-new pricing, I’m good with it. Comment below or use the contact form to the right of the page (or e-mail utterlyboring [at] gmail [dot] com).