Belated Windows 8 Review
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Geekery
I’ve told a few people that I don’t really see any advantage to Windows 8 over Windows 7. I have to eat my words now.
Before I put Windows 8 on my four-year-old HP laptop, I checked with HP to make sure that it was 8‑compatible, and they said it was. AFTER I did the upgrade, I learned that they aren’t putting any Windows 8 drivers out for it! So some of the hardware functions don’t work properly. The hardware manufacturers say, “We only deal with HP, go to them.” Now, I was dual booting with 7 anyway, but hadn’t actually booted into 7 on the system until this week. And dang, it’s slow in comparison, even with the proper drivers. I thought that maybe dual booting was partly to blame — not likely, but maybe.
Because of issues with my employer’s software, I’ve decided to dedicate the laptop as a work-only computer, and that means it has to run Windows 7. I’m finishing up a clean install of 7, then I’ll image it, and every time the work stuff causes a problem, I can recover and move on quickly. Anyway — I was right. Before I blew away the 8 partition (recently upgraded to 8.1), I timed how long it took to boot. And I just timed the boot on the clean 7 install. Even though I had been using 8 for maybe six months, without all the proper drivers, it boots three times as quickly as 7. (Both OSs are Pro-64 bit versions.) For what it’s worth, I am booting from an SSD with both — that, of course, makes more of a difference than ANY other upgrade.
So yes, Windows 8 IS a positive difference on a system that can handle it. I haven’t found anything that I can’t do compared to Windows 7 (except access my employer’s VPN, and that’s due to their restrictions). I do find the lack of the start menu to be a nuisance, but it’s easily fixed with the addition of Classic Shell or one of the many other utilities designed to fix that problem. I am told that 8 does not play well with virtual machines, if that’s important to you.
I don’t have a touch screen and haven’t missed it. I never use the Metro interface for anything, and I’m wholly unimpressed with the native Win8 applications. I don’t like the app store. I don’t need my computer to be like a phone or tablet, but it seems that’s where things are converging.
Academy Caritas: Learning to Code, Part 5
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Education, Family, Fun, Geekery, Reading
Y’all are tired of me doing this, aren’t you? Learning to Code, Part 5.
Well, I had some fun away from the computer when my oldest nephew visited today. He’s a non-stop bundle of energy! We got the air hockey table cleared off for a game. Woof!
And I went to the library and checked out actual, physical books for the first time in eons, rather than eBooks. That was a trip. I had to learn how to use the self checkout thing all over again. I feel like a luddite when that kind of thing happens. I want to shout, “No, I’m not behind the curve, I’m ahead of it!” But the things I needed (technical references) were only available from the library on dead trees, so there you have it. I had to lug home many pounds of paper. Happy I am to be able to check them out, too, as those books are pricey!
Academy Caritas: Learning to Code, Part 4
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Education, Geekery
Yet another post in the ongoing drama of an old lady learning new tricks, Learning to Code, Part 4. I actually put some of what I’ve learned (not programming, but updated web knowledge) to use and re-formatted my résumé so that it looks much better (to me, anyway).
Academy Caritas: Learning to Code, Part 3
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Education, Friends, Geekery
Today’s main post is at Academy Caritas, Learning to Code, Part 3.
I spent part of the day helping Steven with his new web site, which was fun. I’m looking forward to reading lots of food porn there. Y’all go over and say hello, please?
Sleepy, Sleepy
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Education, Fun, Geekery, Reading
I stayed up WAY too late last night studying programming. Yes, for fun. That’s my idea of fun, anyway. I’ve been yawning all day as a result, and I should already be in bed tonight because I need to be up early tomorrow. So this will be brief.
I’ve been enjoying correspondence with a dear old friend over the last few days. Isn’t lovely how, with some people, you can be out of touch for a decade and pick right up where you left off as if no time at all had passed?
I got to visit both a bookstore and a library today. I’m a happy bibliophile 🙂
Tags: Books, bookstores, Friends, Libraries
Academy Caritas: Learning to Code, Part 2
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Announcement, Education, Geekery
Yet another Academy Caritas post today, Learning to Code, Part 2. That’s what I’ve been doing for most of the day!
Tags: Academy Caritas
Academy Caritas: Learning to Code, Part 1
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Announcement, Geekery
Today’s main post is at Academy Caritas, Learning to Code, Part 1.
However, I’d also like to say thanks to James and Steven for the lovely visit and the chance to get out of the house for a change!
Tags: Academy Caritas
Geeky Squee!
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Blogging, Geekery
Those with sharp eyes might notice that the “random quote” widget there in the right-hand column has changed to a fancier one, and a page with all the quotes in the database has been added to the site, too. I switched to a new plugin, but was also able to remember something I’d nearly forgotten about SQL that allowed me to transfer all 824 quotes from one plugin to another without having to re-type all of them. I’m so happy I did a literal geek happy dance around the house!
If anybody out there knows a LOT about transferring posts from an old version of WordPress (php 4 database) to a newer one, I could use some help. I’ve gotten stuck trying to recover the old posts from Katie’s blog and things just keep erroring out. All the other sites came across just fine, but the export function on hers wouldn’t work so I can’t use the sweet little importer and have to actually much with the SQL directly, and keep getting SQL errors without intelligible error messages (my only access is through phpMyAdmin).
Still working on the site
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Announcement, Blogging, Geekery
But as you can see by the growing list of pages on the right-hand side of the site, I’m making progress. The reading, stitching, geekery and health parts of the site have been migrated to WordPress, although not always rewritten and updated. My professional site has been migrated completely now, too. There are still some pages to be migrated here, but they’re coming, then I’ll work on getting the patterns site migrated and maybe even add more patterns. Fibrant Living needs some love, as does Cyberstalked.org, but that last one is my lowest priority.
I don’t suppose anyone would like to test stitch one of the patterns at Heartsong Handicrafts? It would be nice to have stitched model photographs for that site. I haven’t finished the biggest pattern that I was test-stitching for the site yet.
There are new contact forms up on this site and at CynthiaArmistead.com to offer an alternative way to reach me for those who might be shy about commenting.
Why You Need a Software Firewall, and Security at Wifi Hotspots
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Geekery
I’m getting tired of answering questions at Yedda or Yahoo!Answers, then seeing my answers scraped and used as content on other people’s blogs. I’m probably going to keep answering the questions, but just answering with a pointer to a post here or at one of my other sites. Ordinarily, I’d put this particular answer over at another site, but I’m rebuilding it right now.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: eSet, firewall, GoToMyPC, Remote Access, security, VPN, wifi, wireless