Current mood:	accomplished
Current music:	click. click. clickidiclick

FM-PMS, sort of
current chapter word count: unchanged (in file), drastically changed (on paper)
because Ameru kind of had it with pretense

entirely related:

Observations upon moving to a new PC (laptop) & a new OS (XP->Vista)
minimal number of OS clean installs on new PC: 3

1. install is to get rid of all the pre-installed rubbish the manufacturer (or who pays him to) believes you'd oh-so-like to have (like 60 day test versions of Morcistof Office...)


2. install is because after updating the drivers, putting on all the programs you do want, and fiddling with the settings, one is involuntarily tempted to dive into the new OS interna (which is figured out by doing exactly what it does to freeze over just before you had time to make a system image of drive C:)


3. install is what is now in use with all the settings you "tested" on the install before (avoiding only those that caused the freeze in the first place)

it is possible to stuff enough memory and computing power into a laptop
to have no remarkable gain in performance when switching from shiny Aero (with transparency effects) to plain Windows classic with no effects whatsoever!
Guess that might change when I start running numerics, but until that I indulge my curiosity & that... "oooooh, shiny!" feeling. :)

Amount of personalizations accumulated since 2003 on my old laptop: way more than imaginable

number of programs unwilling to work on the new OS: 2 (actually, it's just one, but I deem it unsafe to run the first without having it secured by the second)

relatives always ask you for the turkey recipe at 7 am when you worked on your new laptop until 3am (of the same day)!

it is possible to be so engrossed in setting up your new laptop that you notice on the evening of Dec 25 that you were supposed to attend the Christmas feasting on the evening of Dec 24 (it is also possible not to regret that one little bit).

unexpected positive events:

• integrating the new laptop into my network solved the "network not being found" issue on my small traveling laptop (for what reason ever!)


• finally found a Blockout clone that brings the real Blockout-feeling (from DOS times) to XP & Vista! (I need to get a numbers pad. Now!)


• one day after I received my new laptop, Morcistof published (finally) a signed driver for my TFT!)


• "Morcistof" is an acronym for "Microsoft" and Semagic's spell checker suggests "exorcist" (!) for it. ;-)

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope there'll be more FM soon! :)