knoppix

I seem to have blown up Windows… here’s my tale:

Got a message this morning, that my USB Hub had a short or overload (no reason to believe that). All devices hooked to that hub, stopped responding (bad news).

Later today, had several programs just crash on me. Typical of Windows. So I reboot.

No network connection. Most startup programs no longer startup. Lots of screwy things. Tried system restore… no success. No difference, no matter how far back I go.

Can’t restore until at least Thanksgiving, as that’s the first time I can afford to spend the time (as I said earlier, I’m strapped for time this week).

So here I am in Knoppix, with my USB Keychain Drive (512MB) as my HD. My XP drive is using NTFS, hence it’s good as dead in Knoppix. This is a laptop, so no 2nd drive.

I’m considering a 2nd HD. That new Hitachi 7200 RPM drive looks great (60GB). I wanted to get one of those… but wanted to wait a while. So now I’m debating when to upgrade (do it now, or just use my old one for now, and do it later)?

So my XP installation is useless (even worse than when it “worked”). Knoppix is dead slow off the CD ROM. It’s not good around here as far as computing goes.

Thank you Bill Gates. Your technology is just wonderful.

Everyone help make the new MacVillage.net relaunch a success, that way I can afford to have an Apple laptop next to this PC junk.

I’m pissed.

Finally got around to updating my Knoppix CD. What a neat little setup. One CD with a TON of software. Interesting note on the page:

Closed because of “Software-Patents”

In the next few days, the European Parliament will decide about the legalisation and adoption of so-called “software patents” in Europe, which are already used by large companies in other countries to put competitors out of business. This can lead to the termination of many software projects such as KNOPPIX, at least within Europe, because the holders of the over 30,000 already granted “software patents” (currently without a legal foundation) can claim exclusive rights and collect license fees for trivial things like “progress bars”, “mouseclicks on online order forms”, “scrolling within a window” and similar. That way, software developers will have to pay the “software-patentholders” for using these features, even in their own, completely self-developed applications, which can completely stall the development of innovative software for small and medium companies. Apart from this, the expense for patent inquiries and legal assistence is high, for even trying to find out if the self-developed software is possibly violating “software-patents”, if you want to continue to market your software. Contrary to real patents, “software-patents” are, in the current draft, monopolization of business ideas and methods, even without any tangible technical implementation.

More about the current major problem at http://swpat.ffii.org/index.en.html

You can still download the software… but hope it sticks around. It’s super cool. Even when the computers in the lab aren’t working right, just pop in the CD, and I’m up and running. No issues, not glitches. Just smooth sailing.