splitting the adam

Surreal quote of the week...

"Don't be ridiculous. You were abducted. Of course you need crepes."

Walter Bishop, to his son Peter, on Fringe

7 up...

Well, after fiddling around with the Windows 7 Release Candidate on my MacBook Air for the past several months, I took the plunge--over the past two weeks--upgrading three of our home PCs with the official Windows 7 package. In the words of Monk, "Here's what happened..."

• First up was my partner's PC, a six-year old Dell desktop running the latest XP. According to the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, apparently I was kinda screwed. I only had 512MB of RAM, versus the recommended 1GB, and my graphics card wouldn't provide the appropriate Aero experience. I did a bit of research (and talked to my brother, who works for Microsoft), and discovered that numerous people have gotten 7 running fine on 512MB RAM, as long as you're keeping things relatively simple. So, since my partner basically surfs and does email (no high impact gaming), it was worth a shot. I hooked up an external hard drive, and the Windows Easy Transfer was, in fact, quite easy. I ran a clean install, re-transferred the single Easy Transfer file, and then went to Ninite.com, which allows you to create a single install file for a number of common free apps (Firefox, iTunes, Windows Essentials, etc). Fired it up for the final reboot, and we had two issues. First (and most critical) was the fact that the unit would not recognize the Belkin wireless-G adapter--and, of course, being cut off, I couldn't simply go online to find a driver. I called Belkin, and the nice gentleman who answered the phone explained that drivers for 7 would be ready "in two or three weeks." Good gods. I took a chance and downloaded and unzipped the Vista driver to a flash driver, and then used that on the Dell. Success! Second issue was easier to fix--I had to go online to get an updated driver for the audio card. Now it works fine--it even kept the old Firefox bookmarks.
• Next up was the MacBook Air. This would be slightly more complicated, as there is no easy way to upgrade from 7RC to the final version; I've seen a method described online, but it seems a bit outside my comfort zone. So, I got a full copy of Vista from my brother, backed up the files on my Windows partition, and started from scratch. Turned out to be a little more complicated, as I had to re-start the process when I discovered I hadn't created a large enough partition to install Vista and then install 7 on top of that. Once I fixed that problem, things seemed to go rather well, so we can mark that unit "up and running."
• Finally, the big task--my own desktop. It's a six-year-old HP Pavilion running XP. Fortunately, my RAM and memory card were green-lit, so first step was running Easy Transfer--which took quite a bit longer given the number of files and settings being backed up. Once 7 was installed, things were...rocky. First issue was 7 not recognizing my display's widescreen aspect ratio; after poking around online for an updated driver, it turns out that a second reboot fixed everything. Second issue--as yet unresolved--is the disappearing taskbar. For all the wonderful things I've heard about the taskbar, it only shows up about 1/4 of the time; when it disappears, the Windows start button remains (rather Cheshire-cat-like), but the rest of the bar is gone. I can right-click on the start button and control properties--auto-hide, location, etc--but nothing worked. A call to Microsoft is in order soon. Finally, my iTunes library is royally fragged; part of the issue may have been the fact that, while I had been maintaining my library on an external drive, I still had some files on my C drive, so I tried a consolidation. Also, when I first plugged in my 20GB 5G iPod, iTunes asked if I wanted to transfer some content off my iPod back to my PC. The bottom line? I have numerous songs with two listings--that both point to the same file. I'm considering simply uninstalling iTunes and starting all over again, but it sounds like others are having similar issues, so perhaps an iTunes fix is forthcoming. Everything else--wireless keyboard, sound, graphics--is working fine, though.

Overall grade? B+ (and we'll see if that changes depending on whether Microsoft can solve my disappearing taskbar issue)...

Grey's Anatomy on the Orient Express...

Wow. I've been a follower of Grey's Anatomy since it started, initially at the urging of my partner, a registered nurse. I finally caught up with this past Thursday's episode, which thankfully didn't get too much advance publicity on the blogs I read (and thus I was completely surprised). The basic set-up was one part Rashomon (multiple individuals tell the same story, each from their point of view) and one part Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (one victim, twelve suspects). Now, in this case, it wasn't murder, it was accidental death, and while there was no 'motive', each doctor had an opportunity to, in essence, miss a clue that led to the patient's death. Credit to the producers for fairly showing the clue but not overly drawing attention to it (I did notice it, but didn't catch the significance), and for a twist-filled suspenseful plot. Well done...

An unexpected surprise...

Apparently, shallow, no-talent megaskank Paris Hilton does have one tiny sliver of talent. Someone in her retinue seems to have figured out she's best employed mocking her own 'celebrity' status, as she did in a recent episode of Supernatural. And, believe it or not, she was actually entertaining. I never woulda guessed...

Ouch...

That hurt. And by "that" I mean this week with "Dancing With the Stars". My thoughts...
- I'm going to be fast-forwarding through the snowboarder (Louie), the football player (Michael), and the ultimate fighter (Chuck)
- the two-step, by definition, appears to lack passion, romance, and energy
- WTF is the bolero? And why won't the judges tell us what they're looking for in these four new dances?
- It seems like there's a lot more pressure on the professionals from a choreography standpoint

I think this will get a lot better once the wheat is separated from the chaff..,

Quote of the week...

"I'm not crazy. My mother had me tested."

Sheldon, The Big Bang Theory

Watch this: Dancing With the Stars v9.0 (part 2)

My, my my--the judges seemed unusually harsh tonight, didn't they? Although, to be honest, after nine seasons, the professionals should know better than to stray from 'accepted' practices (yes, I'm talking about you, Dmitiri). As far as the ladies of this season...

• Debi Mazar: Talented actress, great attitude, but I have to agree with the judges that she needs some polish.
• Melissa Joan Hart: Ditto.
• Mya: Holy revelation, Batman! Who knew? Apparently not Dmitri, who got punished (not entirely unfairly) for inappropriate non-Viennese chorography. Hopefully he'll get his act together to maximize her competitiveness.
• Kathy Ireland: Good heavens--she's a CEO? And how does Tony get partnered with the cougar every season? Looked like she was having fun, but, again, a bit low on polish and energy.
• Natalie Coughlin: This season's Shawn Johnson? Great form and grace, but needs a bit more confidence. Smile, Natalie!
• Macy Gray: WTF? Does she even know where she is? Does she care? "I can't wait to show American how hard I've been working"? It was great to see her smile, but I would have liked to see her pay attention to, gosh, I don't know--the beat? And OMG--did she just say "bust my cherry" on live national TV? Clearly this season's Cloris Leachman
• Joanna Krupa: A refreshingly down-to-earth supermodel, lucky enough to be partnered with the very talented Derrek Hough. And, gosh, can she move!
• Kelly Osborne: Wow! Biggest surprise of the season so far! Credit to Louis for the choreography and instruction. And her footwork during the cha-cha relay? Fabulous!

The bottom line? Look for Joanna, Mya, and Kelly to lead the pack and train-wreck Macy to be the first one off the island.

Watch this: Dancing With the Stars v9.0

Well, they're back--bigger and tackier than ever, daring to stretch the definition of 'star' even further, and with new tricks up their sleeves. Let's look at the men...

• Aaron Carter: Of course, anyone with a pop music background comes into this with an bit of an advantage, and Aaron looks to have quite a bit of potential, if he can add a bit of maturity to his routines
• Chuck Liddell: Good enthusiasm, and, yes, he did better than I expected--but my expectations were rather low. A nice enough guy--for an ultimate fighter--but not likely to last long
• Mark Dacascos: Perhaps got off on the wrong foot with the awfully stereotypical 'Kung Fu Fighting', but lots of potential, including surprising musicality. Will likely do one hell of a paso doble, and I think will benefit from Lacey's out-of-the-box choreography
• Ashley Hamilton: Who? Eh.
• Donny Osmond: If he can avoid dressing up like a rag doll, he could go far. Great partner, clever choreography, and there's no doubt he knows how to sell a number
• Louie Vito: sounds like a gangster, positioned as this year's Apollo Ohno--but oh, no, this may be far too high a hill to climb--although his salsa was surprising...
• Michael Irvin: positioned as this year's Jerry Rice, but enthusiasm won't overcome sloppy technique--far too much freewheeling and far too little real dancing going on out there
• Tom DeLay: Republican politician booted out by his own party who epitomizes everything wrong with American politics? I fast-forwarded through that hot mess...

I'll tag Donny, Mark, and Aaron to go the distance...

Not the lunch meat...

Over the past week or so, this blog has been besieged by spam comments. Fortunately, Typepad's filtering system keeps you, my few and faithful readers, from seeing them, but each and every one is bouncing into my personal mailbox. Therefore, you'll see that future comments require a verification code (just to prove y'all are human). Sorry for the inconvenience...

Great moments in food marketing...

I'm not sure how the American slang translates in the UK, but it's still frakkin' funny. Thanks to Gizmodo for the tip (and follow the link for other weirdness)...