I really should get to sleep soon as the day starts early tomorrow. Not that early, but enough so that I actually have to make a point of not hitting the snooze alarm so often as I am wont to do. Sunday I agreed to install Windows XP on my parents' computer to replace (shudder) ME. I backed up all their important files before failing miserably. The “fatal error” said a file needed to continue setup was not found. Now shouldn't this file be on the XP disk that the computer was reading right then??! After a few failed attempts to pull the PC out of its unhappy little restart loop, I called Eldon at SCS and made an appointment to take it in and let him finish the install. I'll accompany mom there in the morning to oversee the dropoff and make sure she asks the right questions. SCS was my plan B all along so I wasn't too worried when I had problems installing. Once they have XP running things should go a lot smoother. ME was just a mess and really not a good OS for your first computer.
The experience made me appreciate even more the OS-tan comics that have emerged over the past year or so. From what I have experienced of the operating systems the personifications are rather appropriate and from the looks of the Wikipedia entry, quite thorough. I first became aware of them through a cute flash animation as an opening for a nonexistent anime. Piro recently linked to more info and thus, I am edumacated. -- On the animation link, right click the top one and select “back” to stop the music, then scroll down to the second for the one referred to.
Like anyone else, I have my own favourite operating system, and it will take something special to make me switch. I've had Windows RG for quite a while now and I've always found it simple and reliably predictable. It's not the most popular, but it's Windows all the way. For a brief preview of its features and capabilities, click here.
iTunes has begun a promotion with Pepsico to sell more Pepsi products by offering free songs for download. Codes under bottle caps unlock credits used for purchases. Normally I ignore things like this but since I have an iPod I've been keeping my eye out for stray bottles and caps. This time it's easier done than said because already this week I've found four winning caps at work. Apparently some absent-minded person is also on the watch for winning game pieces because all the winners I've found appear to have been specially set aside... then forgotten. Now if it were obvious who was saving them -- say, if they were on my manager's desk -- I wouldn't have taken them home. I would simply copy down the codes to enter later at home and leave the caps just where they were found. Since the credits don't have to be used for a couple more months I'll keep collecting until I have enough for an album.
Carp, it's way late already. More tomorrow I guess. Until then,
- E V I L O U T -
Addendum: Currently downloading sixth episode of Max Headroom. Upload rate has consistantly remained steady in the mid 20s while download rate averages single digits to tens if anything at all. I understand the importance of sharing in P2P programs but I'm getting sick of seeing "Down: 0.0 / Up: 28" when my computer has been on for three days straight. I wish there was a way to improve my download speed while I'm not using bandwidth for anything else.
