Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Monday, June 22, 2009

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 improvement and caveats

When looking through all the Blogger posts about the release of Windows Vista SP2, I noticed that they regurgitated all of that information that has been provided on major sources anyway. How unimaginative.

Some stuff with issues has already seeped in.

For other stuff related to Windows Vista and ThinkPads, here's a relevant Google search.

Things to do

The Microsoft TechNet resource page on wVista SP2 is the best place to start, because it has all the information at a user's fingertips.

Avoiding automatic updating to SP2

The resource page features specific download links and a Service Pack Blocker Tool. The latter is useful if a user wants in due course to make a specific wVista computer ready for SP2 deployment by first getting all the necessary drivers and software updated. The postponement entails blocking automatic download and install of SP2 via Windows Update, in a similar manner to Internet Explorer 8 Blocker Tool.

Predeployment work is very important

Before performing the update process itself, I did alot of predeployment work beforehand on a ThinkPad R60e.

Users are recommended to download and run the System Update Readiness Tool to see if there are any inconsistencies.

Doing all this work is laboriously recommended by Microsoft itself. It's best to wade through all of the article, so as not to miss important tips.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Computing history and economic crises

From a letter to someone who works in the computer industry, pasted quickly.

Just by chance, when looking through the list of various nettops
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nettop ), I first stumbled upon a device called Linutop
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linutop ), which is based on a ThinCan reference design that originates from Estonia (I was rather surprised). ThinCan is actually a great name, reminds me of the word Think, which then reminded me of a rather fruity company.

This image of a nettop —
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Linutop_polo.jpg
vaguely reminded me of something else that originated from Estonia, but was widely produced elsewhere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minox
Mass production of the camera began in Latvia, but the prototype was made in Estonia by Walter Zapp and many things there just happened by chance anyway. Maybe this is also the era that began the craze and craving for the small form factor.

The miniputer that could uses AMD's Geode for their CPU and uses the GPL Coreboot for the BIOS:
http://wiki.thincan.org/DBE61#Booting_the_DBE61
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coreboot

(I later learned to my dismay that AMD closed its Geode development team down and moved its developers elsewhere, although it still manufactures the chips. Maybe AMD has something similar up their sleeve.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinCan — Behold the computer in a can! See accompanying photo, which reminds me of a cutout from a rocket or something. Now I remembered R2D2. Oh, the memories...

The nettop market is said on Wikipedia to have huge potential, though I also have my own tack on why.

Nettops are basically a full-featured reinvention of Network Computers —
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_computer.
Larry Ellison can now be seen as a visionary in this field, because the form factor fits in nicely and what he promised then and more is now readily available for much less cost than 10–13 years ago.

Reasons for nettops' potential market adoption cited here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nettop#Market

(Someone on /. wrote that “Windows Vista is not slow, it is 'special'” :-)

That main reason now is cost, and while it's mentioned everywhere anyway because it's such a factor, it has currently become a major reason. The .com bubble saw through the deployment of integrated peripherals (yay, an everyday user didn't need expansion cards no more!). The current global financial crisis: While computer and notebook sales are lagging, most PC companies are held up by brisk netbook sales. Nettops are likely to have their cut now and then in the future.

TGDaily: "Netbooks slow decline of PC market, but bring new headaches"
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/42818/118/

I was thinking that Intel's integrated peripherals foray might have originated from the first iMacs, although small form factors have always been in existence, with various degrees of success:
http://www.embeddedarm.com/software/arm-netbsd-toaster.php

I remember, that at around 2005 or so I had seen websites of a few small computer manufacturers that sold very basic and affordable PC's that had really small form factors. Take away the hard drive and you have a dumb terminal. I guess they've almost always been there, it's just that people never notice these things during boom years.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Automaatkorrektuuri väljalülitamine Word 2007-s

Siin on siis lühidalt koopia tekstist, mille ühele sugulasele saatsin, kui ta kaebas, et tal on eestikeelne Word, aga ainult ingliskeelne tekst, punased sakilised jooned sõnade all ja sõnad parandati automaatselt eestikeelseteks.

Vali kõik tekst (Ctrl+A). Olekuribal (status bar) on all nupp, kus on märgitud dokumendi või tekstiosa kohta käiv keel. Kliki sellele, tuleb uus aken ja vali keel, millega õigekirja teostada — nimekirja ülemises osas on keeled, millel õigekirjasõnastikud programmile olemas on.

Kui tahad automaatkorrektuuri välja lülitada:
• Kliki Office'i pallile üleval vasakus nurgas, kliki uue ala all parema nurga juures "Wordi suvandid" nupule;
• "Wordi suvandid" akna vasakus menüüs kliki Õigekeelsuskontroll.
• Sektsioonis "Õigekirja ja grammatika parandamisel rakenduses Word":
· Võta ära linnuke "Kontrolli õigekirja tippimise ajal" juurest.
· Kui sa ei soovi rohelisi jooni teksti all, võta ära linnuke "Märgista grammatikavead tippimise ajal" juurest.

Allpool on erandid dokumentidele, kus sa saad õigekirja- ja grammatikavigade märgistamise "peita" valitud avatud dokumentides.

OpenOffice.org (millest kevadel lasti välja 3.1 versioon) on selle poolest palju lihtsam, et tööriistaribal on siuke tore nupp, millega saab õigekirjakontrolli ühe klikiga välja lülitada ja kõik ("ABC" nupp siin pildil).