The Gritty Reboot

Thanks to James, I now have Windows 7 installed on my laptop. I think it was a good change. I do have a “before” screenshot on my DeviantArt (I created a new account not too long ago and deleted the old one), but you’ll have to wait for a new “after” screenshot because everything still looks “default-y” at the moment. As much as I love ObjectDock I’ve decided not to use it anymore. I can save screen space for reading – recently I’ve been using my browser at full screen, and things look so much prettier.

I am really, really tired, and I could have gone to sleep before typing this blog but I felt that an update was needed. I did not get enough sleep last night as I was backing up my files. I woke up at 5:00am to find that my laptop was still shutting down. I’m glad that problem no longer exists, because Windows 7 is a lot smoother and it loads faster on startup. :D

Anyway, I didn’t get enough sleep… and I was planning to sleep in the morning but I was struggling to do a piece of homework I’d forgotten about and left for the last minute. It’s not graded, thankfully, but we’re getting feedback on it. I’m not expecting mine to be fantastic but at least that will give me some pointers on where I went wrong. I had two lectures today; the second was more interesting as we had a guest lecturer who made correlations between uses of media like Twitter, compared to the 1800s when newspaper was new. He actually told us a historical story about a man who wrote elaborate love letters to a woman who he had never met, and intended for her to show them off and share them. Sound like Twitter today? Ahmmm. :P It was an interesting story.

I felt like I was dying in that lecture… it went overtime but I really wanted to listen to the guest lecturer until the end. I couldn’t sit still for more than an hour and I was dying to eat. I was glad to be out of there, and I must say I had a really drab afternoon. O_O

I’ve still got a lot of things to fix on my laptop. It’s taken me hours to install a lot of the programs. The ones I haven’t installed are sort of the most important ones – Microsoft Office (James gave me the wrong CD haha) and Photoshop and all that fancy stuff (I’m leaving that for tomorrow because it’s going to take a while). So it’s time to pick a new desktop and fix up other things, and finally get around to emails and comments because I haven’t really been up to date with them. This laptop stuff is really keeping me busy. :P

I also have to put all my fonts back! D:

I’ve been pretty moody today. :( I hope tomorrow is better. Man, I’m so used to seeing an analog clock on my screen all the time but now I can’t see it. It’s so weird. But it needs time getting used to, of course. After two years with Windows Vista I think it is safe to say that I made the right decision in deciding to change.

The only real problem I did come across was with iTunes. Damn, bloody, stupid iTunes. I followed the instructions on the Apple website as to how to back up my library. When I went to restore it though, the library file wasn’t there. I then had to add all my songs and movies all over again – yes, all 30 gigabytes. My playlists are gone as well as the play counts and other stuff. The date added is now all today’s date, so I don’t know which of the songs are really ‘new’ to me that I haven’t listened to much. It sucks. Oh well. I knew I would run into a problem somewhere down the line.

I’m glad I have a day off. Days off are good. And I need some sleep. :)

Comments on this post

Windows 7 still supports desktop gadgets, but not on the sidebar… just all over your desktop.

If you search in your Start menu you should be able to find Desktop Gadget Gallery. If not you may have to turn it on by searching for “Turn Windows features on or off” and enabling Windows Gadget Platform. Once you find the gadget gallery you’ll find the same stuff that existed on Windows Vista for you to use.

I actually just went to look. Hahaha. Cute. :B I don’t think I saw the option when I was changing my window colours… so, either I was blind, or I was blind. XD

HOO
Sorry about the wrong CD /um When you get the other one, you’ll see what I mean /bash
Vista is pretty terrible; sometimes my older laptop wouldn’t shut down at all and would spin all night. That was very frustrating, to be honest. 3=

Must have been an interesting lecture, except in the 1800’s people used to write short messages of 140 letters or less into giant, public chalkboards for people to know what they were up to. They were called ‘twits’.

iTunes is terrible! D: sometimes when I shut it it relaunches itself. That’s so annoying, although it’s rare enough to not be a real nuisance. You’ll see what I mean, although I’m sure you’ve had this on Vista too 😰

(Y)

I commented on your DA (thehecticbox), just so you won’t think it’s some creeper from DA (I used to get that all the time). :D

That sounds like a really interesting lecture. The only lecture course I have are English and History and none fails to make my brain fall asleep. I wish I had a lecture that would teach something about technology and history related to communications (my major) but maybe that’s for later years of study. First year always stinks from what I heard.

Aish iTunes! I have tried that backup when I moved from iPod Touch ♥ to iPhone /angry and of course it didn’t work. I had to add my nearly 2GB of music then all back, and I was so frustrated. So I can’t even imagine how frustrating it must be for you.

Oooooh that’s awesome; I do communication too! In the branch of information/media, so we have a few practical/design subjects. First year was pretty drab for me. Our course is completely set out for us (not sure about yours), except for our options, which we can choose to our heart’s content. :D

Awh your desktop looks cute. :3 I’ve always wanted to do that thing where you make a PC look like a Mac but I keep forgetting whenever I come online, I may do it later.

It sucks that it took so long to back up all your files but Windows 7 is definitely better, it looks so much better and I’ve not experienced a single problem with my laptop and I’ve had it three months.

I heard about that in a film before how knights in the middle ages would send letters to women they’d never met and it’d be sort of like ‘an internet relationship’, except without the internet obviously. :P It’s cool how social networking can link to the 19th century, I wish we learned about that in history instead of medicine through time. -__-

Installing all my programs was the worst part of getting a new laptop, or rebooting when I had my old one. The discs would be all over the house and it’d take so long to remember which I’d downloaded and what fonts I’d had. x__X

Thank you about my layout. :3

I went to the baby shower in the end! Luckily I was feeling much better and I had a good time!

I love it when lectures are actually worth your time :D More often than not I’m just sitting there thinking about all the ways I could’ve made better use of my time, and then every once in a while there will be one where time just passes by so much faster because it’s really interesting ^^

Itunes can be a *%^$. it has pulled that with me once or twice too, and I wasn’t happy (needless to say). But I’m happy you’re happy with your switch :P

I’ve never heard of ObjectDock before, but it looks interesting. It’s like you can make any OS look like a Mac.

The more I learn about history, the more I think that we’re just all stuck in one huge cycle of stupidity and not realizing that something similar had happened in the past. That comparison to Twitter was lulz. :P

wow, you quite possibly had the cutest desktop ever. can’t wait to see the after picture

sorry about itunes :( i guess it has an evil streak

Urgh, iTunes sometimes does more harm than good. I still need to transfer my library from my old Windows XP laptop to the Windows 7 one I have for school now. That’s a bit too daunting to do without a bit of time on my hands, so I’ll

I absolutely love Windows 7. I’ve had experience with Vista and XP and ended up choosing XP (in all its glory) because Vista just irritates me with all its bugginess. Windows 7, though. Wow. It’s amazing. The only problem I’ve had is with a ‘plugged in, not charging’ warning, although it was fixable and I think it’s more of an issue with Dell than Windows 7. I hope that’s the case.

I love your customization of your laptop ;) I really need to do something about mine, it’s far too default-y for my liking. Please show us what you end up doing with Windows 7 once you’re done!

WOOOOOOT WINDOWS 7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -throws confetti- Sorry I am overly hyper. It’s 2.16 and I have been up for 21 hours. BOOOOO.

Now I want an upgrade! I’ve had Vista for far too long and it’s far too much trouble. How did James upgrade it for you? I wonder if a computer-knowledgeable friend can do it for me, though I think I know more about computers than my friends do.

I hate reinstalling things, like iTunes OMG! Last September or something when my Vista died I lost my entire library and I haven’t been using the iTunes library since. When I add a new song I put it in my iPod and my external drive, and delete it from my library. That’s why it won’t scrobble last.fm properly. I was not gonna add like 700 songs. I do not have your patience at doing that, bahahha.

Oh wow I totally forgot you’re from Indonesia, SORRY! Good thing they weren’t affected, it’s so horrible! But don’t you notice that back in 2004 or so there were far less natural disasters a year? Ever since the chain of quakes from Chile to Haiti to wherever or what order it was. They were happening like all at the same time!

Oh lol I never visit people’s plugs, haha! I just had to plug her when she told me she’s back, I barely know her and she’s done so much for me. It’s strange.

Well I haven’t been getting bullied on Formspring yet, but I’ve noticed the more well-known your website the more likely you get stupid comments. It’s kind of related! Like that guy who left the rude comment. He wasn’t even the first. I guess I should expect more and more of that.

Glad you liked making the switch! I’m typing on a desktop computer with Vista right now and I have been for a while because I’ve been too lazy to get out my laptop. D:

GRRR iTunes… if that happened to me I’d have a heart attack, okay? /pow I love my music…

Cutest icons ever! I am stealing you idea for now. You have the cutest things, it’s ridiculous! I’m jello!

Sucks that you didn’t get all your apps all on your brand spanking new laptop -ish. At least it’s running smoother.

I still cannot believe the 30 GBs. I hate having my memory lower than 80 GBs myself so I delete stuff all the time. LOL.

Hope you have a nice day off!

Congratulations on switching over to Windows 7 (: I love windows 7 now D:! It is like.. So much prettier than XP. :P! My laptop is.. A… “Custom” version of Windows 7 where someone edited windows 7 to make it faster and more optimized. And my desktop is the legit Windows 7 :P! Even though I have a copy of the windows 7 dvd that my old prom date sent me :X! Its useful ^__^ I hope you`ll enjoy Windows 7 and its … Unknown features (Because I don`t know whats new about it :P) I just love godmode on windows 7 ^__^ Its like an all in 1 control panel :O!

Communication is so different from before and now :P It somehow reminded me of a question I had to answer :/. “How did people organize protests in the middle east like Lybia, Egypt, etc?” TWITTER AND FACEBOOK! :P And then compare it how it would’ve have happened centuries ago. “Door to door.” :X But wow :O! I bet the creator of twitter was a decedent from that man :P Just kidding :P!

I hope you have already caught up with your sleep .__.!

The first thing you always need to install in a fresh reformat is antivirus. ALWAYS ANTIVIRUS! Because one time, I did programs first then the antivirus, and apparently, one of the keygens (My dad’s too cheap to buy programs D:) have a virus attached to it. :/. So yeah .__.! There goes another 5 hours. D:

I hope you’ll find a way to fix itunes. :/. I HATE IT WHEN ITUNES messes up with my library. If iTunes never screwed me over, you would see that I listened to poker face over 300 times since 3 years ago. Or since it first came out. You would see me listening to band geek music over 100 times :P. And other songs over 50 times :O! I also have over 30gb of media in my iTunes, But I`m just talking about music. :/. Videos is another +15 gb. Unless I import the band videos I have, its another 40 gb. :P

Tamales doesn’t stink :P Unless its made by a dirty person. :/. I always thought making masa in 2 am is good because it makes the tamales fresh. But the neighbor’s house has mold on the walls and so. The mother never works and I can`t believe she doesn`t have a sense of cleanliness!

You always have to do a background check on tenants! No matter what! One of the tenants that lives on the other side of my house, next door, probably sells drugs. The only reason why I know that is because I see people walking in and out of the house. When my mom walks out of the house to the back yard to feed the chickens or find my kittens, the dude like stares at my mom from the doorsteps on the neighbor’s side. :/.

I hate the vets. D:! It`s like. Either you pay up the money or they`ll put it to sleep. Its a fml situation. I love pets. :/. But yeah D:! I tried home remedies. It only helped with the blister sore. :/.

I think we treat things differently depending on the prices :P If you bought an expensive table, you would treat it with more respect compared to a cheap table XD! Unless you really care about every single thing you buy :O! 1 cent notebook vs a 2 dollar notebook.. :O!

For some reason, we do :O! Like… I buy a bottle of water, its 1 dollar. But with tax and the recycle fee, its 10+10 cents. so its 1.20$ . . When you recycle the bottle of water, you get 10 cents from it, which is basically the recycle fee :X!

Data plan varies for people :P! some providers here gives it.. Within the phone packages. I know one of the cheap LA phone providers charges 35 or 40$ a month for unlimited text, email, and internet. But when you go 100 miles+ out of LA, you don`t get service anymore :P. So far, I am using the family plan, but its just 500 minutes + 2 texting lines (+20$) and 2 extra liens (+0 because its a kids plan). :X! So its like 90 bucks a month for 4 lines :O! If you know you have no wifi connection everywhere and you love the internet and you’re always on the go, a data plan is worth it :P!

I love smartphones :P! Sometimes, there are phones that you never heard of. :O! Like that one iPhone/Blackberry clone phone, its like.. wow :O! China makes bootlegged iphones and blackberry! I gotta see that! :P And looking at phones can give you a good idea of what phone you can get next :P! “Ooh. The android interface is good for the looks.” “iPhones.. They have great applications!” “Blackberry.. Its good to use if you’re into the organized things.” And other phones that aren`t as popular, like.. “This samsung standard interface is alright. There`s nothing bad and good. Its plain and simple for those who likes to talk and just wants a phone.” I want to work as a part time phone reviewer now :P!

Take care ^__^!

I love your desktop icons, so adorable! I feel your pain, having to go through all those trouble in redownloading programs and Itunes. My itouch was in the DFU mode which was weird since I only pressed the power button. I think Itunes hates me. >__< I am still not fully downloaded all my songs back :(

i’m glad you liked your new windows 7! (: too bad you lost all of your music and videos and have to add all 30 gb back again, that’s a lot of work!! i hate when things like that suddenly disappear. i like your screenshot, did you make it looks like that? it looks nice anyway, maybe similiar to mac, but still nothing like i’ve seen before (:

i haven’t seen house in a while either, i still think the first seasons were the best!!

maybe i’ll have to check out doctor who too! :D it sounds kind of like my taste, haha! and yes i agree, i like having the whole dvd box too, and then don’t have to wait for the next episode to come.

Have you plugged in your iPod/whatever has the music? I had that problem, plugged mine in, and at least some of the songs appeared (the stuff that’s on my iPod, anyway). I think my laptop has Windows Vista. I’m at the point where I’m just going to buy a new one (one that has a webcam AND microphone BUILT-IN) with Windows 7 pre-installed. Seems like it will be the best thing to do. It will be as if I am starting over; I’ll just have my dad help me get my files from my lappy o the new one! Haha. // Todd loves that tree; he’s always climbing up in it!// I set them like that because the kids have spring break this week as well; I’d rather get online on a computer when they’re not there. …Or even when she’s not there. She’s so controlling. I’m not the one who downloaded a virus, though. It hasn’t attacked her computer yet, but Cody downloaded some virus game.

Wooh!! My comment went through<3

Oh my gosh I love Windows 7! I had it for a while when I was in NZ but now that I have my old computer back I’m stuck with crappy Vista. I miss my Windows 7! Enjoy it!

Yes, nature sucks sometimes – along with the back button.

I’m sorry, but when I said it should be BlackBerries, I wasn’t correcting you. ^^
I was just mimicking the name of the phone – if you get what I mean. :P /bash

I should’ve made that more clear. /um

Ohh i’ve heard that window 7 is so much better than window vista :3 I’m glad you switched to something more reliable. When I had PC i would use ObjectDock too! :D

It is a lot of work when you refresh your whole computer or updated it with a new software. But do make sure to get some sleep XD

It is interesting that we have twitter now and before they had newspapers o_0;

Geez you had Vista? I always hated Vista, on more than one occasion before Windows 7 I changed it out for XP, a much better operating system.

That’s interesting how he connected the first newspapers with social media today, I remember when Michael Jackson died it was being reported on Twitter hours before any news sites was reporting it.

Ohh I hate Vista, I have it on my desktop computer at home and it crashes all the time!! Hope Windows 7 is better :) It’s always good to get a reboot. It feels like I never get enough sleep either during the week, but I do love to sleep haha. I rarely went to lectures for uni and it sucks you have to travel so far too. At least you can sleep on the train though.

It always sucks having to do stuff like that. Fortunately, I never upgraded my XP laptop to Vista and when straight to 7 when I got my lovely Devin. Smoothest transition ever. But my XP laptop was starting to do the same things it sounded like your vista one was up to. I’m going to chalk it up to it being four years old and a Gateway at that. Gateway computers used to be good back in the day, but they’ve gone the way Dell computers have always been: complete rubbish. XD But I do remember when it crashed just before I replaced it, I had to re-download everything and since I don’t back up my files (I know, not good at all) it was ten times worse!

The lecture sounds interesting. Funny how even the most minuscule change in communications can make a huge difference in the world.

Welcome to Windows 7! I’m glad you’re enjoying it so far. My laptop came with Windows Vista and I liked that but I loved how much more memory friendly Windows 7 was. Hahaha. I used Object Dock as well, but after awhile I just got bored with it and ended up uninstalling it too. The novelty of having a dock didn’t really last long I’m afraid.

That man who wrote elaborate love letters is interesting. Sometimes I wish guys still did grand gestures like that since 140 characters doesn’t really do it justice. Not quite as romantic :P

I’m glad you enjoyed your lecture even though you were getting really hungry and whatnot. At least you satiated your thirst for knowledge! Hahaha. CORNY! /wave

Enjoy your time off. It’s well-deserved :)