This is My Blackberry

This is my Blackberry.

There are many like it, but this one is MINE.

My Blackberry is my best friend. It is my life.

I must master it as I must master my life.

My Blackberry without me is useless. Without my Blackberry, I am useless.

Windows 7 Install List

Document Version 1.1.2.4.3 Last Modified 8/14/09

Just installed Windows 7 cleanly onto a new hard drive. Going to catalog the initial installation of apps and why I chose to install them.

• Commercial Software

Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit - Why not? That, and the current activator only supports Ultimate at this time, so the reasoning should be fairly obvious. I'm using 32-bit as I only have 3GB RAM, and I anticipate I'll replace this machine before I spend the money and add another Gig for no reason. You'll need Hazar's 7 Activator: Run as Administrator, let reboot the computer. Comes up activated. We'll see in a few days. edit: Few days later, all is well.

Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise - While your version may vary, is there any reason NOT to go with Enterprise?

Adobe CS4 Master Collection - The one, the only. Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver. Those are my main tools.

Roxio Creator 2009 - An all encompassing DVD burning suite. Some prefer Nero; I've come back to the old Adaptec product.

Techsmith Snaggit - For screen shots and other tutorial handiness.

Symantec Endpoint Protection - The Cox Security Suite that is provided by the ISP is not yet compatible with Windows 7. This is, and I've always personally had good luck with Symantec products.

Windows Home Server Connector - I currently have a Windows Home Server for my file server and torrenting machine, and this software gives me console access to it.

MagicISO - Used to open .iso images and add files. Namely condensing serials onto disks. Recently compatible with Windows 7.

• Free (as in beer) Software

Mozilla Firefox - 3.5 is current as of writing; quite fast and a nice alternative to Internet Explorer

Google Chrome - Just the other day released another update that made it skinnable. And ridiculously fast.

Applekeys 2 - I have an Apply Keyboard and need this to get 'Print Screen' mapped correctly to my keyboard.

Apple Safari - 4.0.2 is current as of this writing and add another browsing option.

Virtual Clonedrive - This is use for mounting .ISO files when I don't want to have to burn the CD/DVD

VLC - 1.0 as of this time. The one, the only. It's the Swiss Army Knife of multimedia players.

7-Zip - Has nothing to do with Windows 7 per se, this is the Swiss Army Knife of file openers.

Tweetdeck - Yeah, I know.

iTunes - Not really a question.

Blackberry Desktop 5.0 - Used to sync the Blackberry(ies). Had to install USB drivers with this suite.

• Games - Free or Otherwise
  

Fallout 3 - Seriously one of my all time favorites.
America's Army - Going to try 3.0. It's been a while.

• Incidentals - Unexpected but required installations

Adobe Flash - Had to update to 10.0

Adobe Air - Necessary for Tweetdeck

Apple Software Update - Necessary for Apple Software on Windows computers.

Quicktime - An incidental of iTunes
Apple Bluetooth Keyboard - Install wireless keyboard from Apple in Windows.
Windows Live - Newest free software out of Microsoft to compete with iLife.
Windows Live Games - Part of Windows Live.
Roxio Media Manager & Blackberry Media Sync - Part of Blackberry Desktop 5.0.

• Still Looking For:
  

A proper video transcoder for both my X-Box 360 and my Storm.
An all-in-one codec set for Windows Media Player 11 I trust to install
The new Batman demo.

Installing Windows 7

This was asked of me, so I thought I'd go world-wide with it.

1. Acquire the ISO
Considering it was only released to manufacturers, this is technically impossible unless your last name is Dell. But I digress.

2. Burn and Boot the ISO.
Forgive the remark, but this isn't Aaaaar! 101. Burning an ISO is not covered here. (Hint: Nero)

3. Beginning Install
I took the route, personally, of upgrading a Vista installation. I started the process from within Vista, then followed the oh-so-simple prompts. The most important being what edition I wanted to install. I suspect a clean install will tell us the same. I chose Ultimate, because at Ultimate Computers (the wholesale computer company I run that allowed me to get this copy. *ahem*), every computer we sell comes with Ultimate. Who do you think we are, some two-bit operation?

Carrying on...

4. Setting Up
Windows Vista and Windows 7 are sisters. Vista is the older, uglier of the two. But Ugs is experienced, and her experience is beneficial for us when it comes to cracking Microsoft's... activating your copy correctly. The same scheme used to activate Windows Vista works on her completely unexpectant little sis. I'm going to Hell for that. The process you're looking for is by Orbit30. You know where to look.

5. Enjoy the fruit of someone else's labor.
That's right you damn slackers. That's all I have to say on the matter.

Facebook (or how I came to love Little Brother)

In the last couple of days, you'll have found my Facebook account livening back up. Given my previous feelings regarding the service, I can't help but have torn feelings. One side of me can' t let go of the fact that some of the venture capital getting Facebook off the ground came from a former CIA agent's firm, or that a member of the directors for the company is former NSA.

It seems all crazy conspiracy theory, I know. But regardless of conspiracy loonyness or something more, I think it speaks to an age where we are willing to put everything we are out to the world without any regard for who may be able to utilize it. The ability, for example, to lock away your more... specious photos for only friends to see. You're only a computer hack, password compromise, or over-the-should social engineer away from having your salacious images available to people you don't know for whatever their reasonings. My guess is those people don't have your best interests at heart. And you may never know until it's too late. Fancy a run for a local office, and that less than complimentary photo shows up during the primaries. And that's without using my imagination.

Then, you may ask, why are you using it again if you've got such an aversion to Facebook? My answer is two-fold.

Recently it became apparent to me that there's no stopping the juggernaut of information that Facebook and other sites will imbibe. And sadly, we're not hesitant for one moment to give it, personal liberties be damned. I never knew volunteering all the reading behaviors, friends and associates, how you know them, religious and political affiliations, and personal contact information over the last 5 years could be so fun! The CIA couldn't do a better job profiling you if they tried.

I've decided to embrace that system, doing so knowing where the dangers lie. I'm best suited to operate in murky water knowing what to expect. There are several things I've done to protect my information. But let's face it: regardless of how well you drive, you still have a possibility if accident, if not caused by you, but another driver on the road. You take those calculated risks every time you get behind the wheel. Or post something to Facebook.

Blogger to Twitter Module

I'm curious about a module or web app that would allow me to post the titles of my Blogger entries to my Twitter account as I post. Wonder how difficult that would be to implement?

On a completely different note, this was posted entirely from my Blackberry Storm.