The Vista SP2 failed to install and screwed up my system. So I'm going to try [Windows 7 Ultimate RC] and see how it goes.

I typically install [My Preferred Development Environment].

To start with I am installing on a new hard drive.

IE8 crashes when trying to download [Firefox]. Was that intentional? Is that a feature or a bug?

[MozBackup] restored my email profile for [Thunderbird] flawlessly. I did have to manually copy my signature file.

Might as well try [Visual Studio 2010].

Quick links to favorite apps:
[Skype]
[Flash Player]
[NVIDIA 9800 GTS] drivers
[NVIDIA 7350 LE] drivers
[WinMerge]
[Gimp]
[Synergy]
[Textpad]
[TortoiseSVN] - [x86] - [x64]
[Steam]
[MagicDisk]
[Adobe Acrobat Reader]
[Java]
[iTunes]

And Firefox add-ons:
- XMarks
- Chatzilla
- FireFTP

Synergy doesn't seem to work when Windows-7 UAC pops up.

Manual installs:
- Office 2007 Ultimate (with Groove 2007)
- [Silverlight Tools]

I got a bluetooth mouse from Amazon. It's a Logitech mouse V470. I couldn't tie the middle mouse button to a middle click given the software. I sent this rant to Logitech support.

------

I can't believe that this product was shipped. You have a 3 button mouse. There's really no excuse that you didn't check that all 3 buttons work.

The software only allows the middle mouse button to be tied to zoom functionality.

I want to tie the middle mouse button to the middle click. This isn't rocket science.

Please post a software update to this trivial problem.

Peeved customer,

~Tim Graupmann

-----

Reference #
090626-001959

----

And of course right after I send the mail, I figured out how to assign the key. Doh! Bad interface design.

I couldn't update Thunderbird because my Logitech Quickcam software was running. Weird. Somehow Logitech had locked the file: [mozMapi32.dll].

I installed Vista SP2 and that was a bad idea. I can no longer connect to my network via the [Netgear WN121T adapter]. I get an error [The system cannot find the file specified]. Be sure to install that Netgear (optional) network Windows Update or you may find yourself stuck.



This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. ([Code 31])

Click 'Check for solutions' to send data about this device to Microsoft and to see if there is a solution available.

It turns out Vista SP2 failed to install. [122602]

Service Pack did not install. Reverting changes. Do not turn off your computer.

I'll try installing the SP2 from Safe Mode. No luck.

Service Pack did not install. Reverting changes. Do not turn off your computer.

Good thing they have a SP2 readiness tool:

=================================
Checking System Update Readiness.
Binary Version 6.0.6001.22375
Package Version 5.0
2009-06-24 10:20

Checking Deployment Packages

Checking Package Manifests and catalogs.

Checking package watchlist.

Checking component watchlist.

Checking packages.

Checking component store
Summary:
Seconds executed: 2429
 No errors detected

[Synergy] is a great open source tool that ties your keyboard and mouse input together across multiple computers as though it was the same computer. Synergy runs a client and server and sends network traffic over TCP which connects Windows and Mac input together. You can even share clipboards. [Engadget] has a detailed article on how to setup your configuration.

The anticipated [Modo 401] shipped today! I'm sifting through the docs looking for anything on [volumetric lighting].

I used to go to Photoshop contest every day and post something. I forgot how [cool and weird] my entries were.

Last night's Windows Update required a reboot. There must've been a Netgear something in the updates because my network was disabled. I had to reinstall my [network drivers] to get back on the network. Pooh! I think I'll risk installing Vista SP2, or should I???

By default, Remote Desktop is disabled on Vista Home Premium. [This hack] will enable the feature. Without the hack, there's no way with the GUIs available to enable the feature. It's actually better to have Vista Home Premium with the hack versus Vista Ultimate because Home Premium (hacked) allows multiple user log ins.

A couple days ago one leg that feeds power to our house went out. So yesterday, PUD came out to fix it and accidentally killed my Comcast Internet with a backhoe. So now I'm using dial-up AOL until Sunday when Comcast might come out to fix the Internet cables. Originally, the problem traces back to the water pipeline guys who nicked the power and my Internet cables the first time.

Now that I'm on dial-up, I want to share the Internet connection with our computers. In the past I used [Squid] as a network proxy. [ACME] provides windows binaries in the [related downloads] section. Squid seems to be better than [Internet Connection Sharing] because each time AOL connects it recreates the network connections. So this means you lose your Internet sharing settings. In this respect Squid is better. However, Squid by default only supports http, https, and ftp.

[developer.mozilla.org] - build your own Firefox add-on
[ted.mielczarek.org] - Firefox extension wizard
[developer.mozilla.org] - setup your development environment
[xulplanet.com] - firefox add-ons have access to the XULDocument
[developer.mozilla.org] - how to modify the DOM with XUL
[XULPlanet] - XULPlanet Forums
[developer.mozilla.org] - tips on accessing document.body from your firefox plugin
[irc://irc.mozilla.org#extdev] - Firefox extension channel
[developer.mozilla.org] - embedded dialog API
[developer.mozilla.org] - regular expressions

Notes:
(xp) Extensions should be placed in C:/Documents and Settings/username/Application Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/quyeu39o.default/extensions

[Burnout Paradise City] has one of the worst user interface designs for the PC that I've seen in a long time. It's not obvious how to quit the game either. You have to hit ESC and then F1 a few times to get to any recognizable options.

[ZBrush] and [Modo] have teamed up on a [GoZ] feature so you can quickly move your geometry and materials between GoZ apps like Maya, Modo, and ZBrush.

[Ubuntu] was much easier to get the network working this time around. I ended up using NDIS to install the windows drivers for my [Netgear WN121T] using the driver links in this [post]. Painless.

I had to stop the x-server to install the [NVIDIA] drivers with "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop" [source].


[Mania Drive] is a great way to test if 3D is working after installing the video drivers.

To install [VMWare] download the bundle and then follow [these community steps].

[ISO Recorder] is a free tool to burn ISO images to CD and DVD, rather than having to pay for Nero or CD Creator.

I've been doing a lot of 2.5D painting with Modo and I want to know how to set the camera defaults. Since every time I open an object for painting, I need to setup an orthographic camera aimed at (-45, 135, 0).



Forum: [post]

It would also be nice to make the uv process smarter about the painted area. If we scale the uvs, we just need to [bake] another texture.



Forum: [post]

I found two pod casts that I've started to listen to. 1) This Week in Photography and 2) [PhotoFocus]. I just search on iTunes to find them (which is not easy or quick).

You can get a Northwest Forest Pass for $5 online at the [US Forest Service] in the passes and permits section which allows parking at trail heads in Snohomish County. In my case I wanted the [Annual Northwest Forest Pass] which you can buy online and get by mail.

Linae picked up a [Canon PowerShot SX200 IS]. The camera doesn't look too popular, but it could just be a new camera model.

The NVIDIA 8600 GTS (s) in my [Quad-core] just burned out again for the 3rd time. I need to find a more reliable graphics card that I can leave on all the time. I've changed the motherboard to a [P5N-D].

I'm going to replace the power supply with a [Thermaltake W0106RU 700W Complies with ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V version SLI Certified 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail] and replace the graphics cards with [EVGA 512-P3-N973-TR GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail ].

[SpeedFan] is apparently an application that can read your computer's fan temperatures.



Forum: [post]

[Meetup] lets you manage groups and RSVP to your group events. They have an [api] so that applications like [iMingle] can manage events, comments, and RSVPs. The API does not provide access to [private groups] if you don't belong to them. Location data may not be available which cripples the app, so you may have to submit location data to [Skyhook Wireless] which provides location data for the iPhone.

[DrawLogic reviews Silverlight 3 - Beta] is planned to have shader model 2.0 support, but it is not GPU hardware accelerated. Suggested alternatives are: [Papervision3d], [Away3d], and [Sandy].

[Papervision] - performance is [too slow] to be ideal. PapervisionX due out later is based on the Flash 10 APIs aims to have better performance. [API]

[Away3d] - boosts good performance with a 100k [cached] triangle scene. [API] [examples]

[Sandy] - does not offer hardware acceleration [API] [examples]

[Torque3d] - [api] [blog] [forums] [video] [videos] [video] [videos] [albumbs] [videos] [wiki]

[Gimp] has a preference accessed by (edit->preferences) that allows you to save your window layout. That way each time you open Gimp, everything is laid out how you want. This is especially useful if you have multiple monitors.

Linae picked up a [Canon PowerShot A1000 IS] to replace our [Olympus Stylus 800] which has problems opening. This is in addition to our [Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTI]. According to the Flicker camera finder, each camera has different memory cards and the [Canon PowerShot A1000 IS] is less popular than the [Olympus Stylus 800] and [Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTI].

The Canon PowerShot A1000 IS, was not very durable and had to be returned.

I needed to paint a photo on a flat projection of a cube to achieve a 2.5D effect. Luckily Modo has a tool called Image Ink [video].



Forum: [post]