I am the ghost of groovymother.com. Woooooo!

This is an old page from Rod Begbie's blog.

It only exists in an attempt to prevent linkrot. No new content will be added to this site, and links and images are liable to be broken. Check out begbie.com to find where I'm posting stuff these days.

Filed under 'vista'

December 4, 2007

BBC NEWS | 'Kill switch' dropped from Vista

“Microsoft says its efforts have seen a drop in piracy of its software.” Alternatively, the fact that no-one *wants* Vista could be a factor.

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October 23, 2007

Vista Is Still Plagued by Incompatibilities - Yahoo! News

“Vista has an aroma like [Windows] ME, and I am not interested in getting sick again.” Ooh, I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it’s pretty true. Vista and ME are not dissimilar in their not-worth-the-hassle-of-upgrading-ness.

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August 27, 2007

Lenovo Support & downloads - Downgrading from Windows Vista to Windows XP

Lenovo offering disks to let you “downgrade” your newly-purchased Vista-running laptop to XP. Prediction: These will be very popular.

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August 25, 2007

Monkey Mind - 8-23-07 UserTalk - Twadget

Twadget (my Vista sidebar gadget for Twitter) is described by a user as the “one nice thing about Vista that [she’s] been able to find”. Best feedback I’ve ever received!

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August 20, 2007

Even the Office 2007 box has a learning curve - Joel on Software

As someone who installed Vista on a PC in January, and regretted it for months, I echo Joel Spolsky’s summation: “I’ve been using Vista on my home laptop since it shipped, and can say with some conviction that nobody should be using it as their primary operating system — it simply has no redeeming merits to overcome the compatibility headaches it causes.”

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July 27, 2007

Very slow internet browsing - Vista x64 Forums

“netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled” — The magic incantation that stops network performance SUCKING BALLS (at least on the RhymesWithNose network) in Vista.

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February 13, 2007

Upgrade

I’ve seen a bunch of links to instructions on how to install the Vista “Upgrade” edition on a PC without an existing Windows partition, something that theoretically shouldn’t be allowed.

I can’t help but feel that this is nothing new—It reminded me of something a friend at Uni was told by Microsoft support 10 years ago.

After a catastrophic PC failure, he was reinstalling software. He had the Office 95 upgrade disc, which required you to insert the installation disk from an earlier version of one of the Office tools to “prove” that you were upgrading. Unfortunately, he’d left all the old disks at his parents’ house.

So, after calling round friends in something of a panic (there was no doubt a paper due) to see if anyone had an old office disk (no-one did), he called up Microsoft support to ask what he could do.

“Oh, when you’re asked to point to an old installation disk,” he was told, “just point it to the Office 95 disk you’re currently installing from. That will work.”

And it did.

January 31, 2007

Seth's Blog: Wow!

Nothing says “Wow!” like seven aging men in suits.

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December 8, 2006

Pirates crack Vista Activation Server | APC Magazine

MS try to avoid the “Volume License Key” fiasco of XP (if you used FCKGW, or another volume key to install XP, you didn’t have to go through “activation” - ie. phoning into their servers) by not issuing volume keys for Vista. Instead, they created a server that enterprises could run, and installations of Vista would phone into local servers. Someone gets hold of said server, creates a VMWare image, voila! Anyone can install Vista without having to activate! Cat, meet mouse. Mouse, meet cat. Fight!

November 28, 2006

The Power of Together

Sit through three “webcasts” on “exciting” “new” Microsoft “technology”, and get a free legitimate license for Windows Vista and/or Office 2007.

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November 24, 2006

Twadget — The Twitter Vista Sidebar Gadget

I’ve knocked out a sidebar gadget for Vista which displays your friends’ statuses on Twitter.

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November 21, 2006

Joel on Software: Choices = Headaches

Good article by Joel — Why *does* the Vista shutdown menu require *seven* options?

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November 13, 2006

shell: revealed - Can't drag quicklaunch toolbar to top of desktop

I’m playing with Vista on my laptop, and this “improvement” from Microsoft was pissing me off. Thankfully there is a “solution”. One that is a usability nightmare waiting to happen (drag a folder too close to the edge of the screen, and it becomes a toolbar that is hard to work out how to close).

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November 10, 2006

NPR : New Windows Has New Sound

NPR segment on the history of the Windows startup sound.

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September 8, 2006

Joel on Software: Installing Vista RC1 in VMWare Workstation

This gotcha caught me out too when I was trying to experiment with Vista RC1. Bloody Microsoft.

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July 30, 2006

Windows Vista Speech Recognition Demo Gone Awry - Google Video

“Dear aunt, let’s set so double the killer delete select all”

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July 13, 2006

Call Me Fishmeal.: Note to Bill Gates: I'll take your bet, for $10,000.

Bill Gates says that it’s a 80% chance that Vista will ship in January. Mac developer Wil Shipley offers to take billg up on that bet.

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About This Site

This is an archive of groovmother.com, the old blog run by Rod Begbie — A Scottish geek who lives in San Francisco, CA.

I'm the co-founder of Sōsh, your handy-dandy guide for things to do in San Francisco this weekend.