Before we head back to Kazakhstan, I need to remember to find some good quality, fast and cheap RAM for Irina’s laptop. Although it currently has 1Gb of RAM, it is running Windows Vista, which means that by the time all the drivers, utilities and other services are loaded, there isn’t a lot of free space left for running actual applications. I need to check what format the laptop requires, the fastest frequencies it can handle, and whether any known incompatibilities exist with certain brands. Obviously we don’t tend to use Photoshop or video editing applications a lot, it would be nice to know that it had a little headroom to spare when pushed hard.
Nov 10 2008
When Does 4 Equal 3.5?
I was reading up on Windows Vista the other day (Ira’s laptop had it installed when we bought it last year), and I was surprised to find out that even with Service Pack 1 installed, 32-bit flavours of Windows Vista can only address up to 4Gb of memory. SP1 means that the amount of system memory is now correctly reported, but the amount of available RAM is unchanged. Because of the 4Gb limit including your graphics card’s memory and the other addresses used on your motherboard, you are not likely to be able to use much more than 3.25-3.5Gb, no matter what RAM you physically install, unless you move up to 64-bit flavours!
Dec 12 2007
Vista Locks Outs Dropped
On to a slightly more serious matter now, as Microsoft have announced they will dropping their much-loathed kill switch, that locks out users should their Windows Vista installation be found to be pirated. Whilst the theory held water, and you can see why it was implemented, too many users complaining about being locked out of their legally paid for install caused a lot of mad press for Microsoft.
Windows will still need to be activated (unless your OEM system has a BIOS recognised by m/soft, and so bypasses this stage), but Microsoft have promised that no further complete lock outs will occur. Some users, who have flashed their motherboard’s BIOS to fool Vista into believing all is OK, are not overly concerned.
Mar 08 2007
For Tech Support Guys With No Hands On Experience Of Windows Vista…
like me…
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Mar 01 2007
ADSL arrived and We, The Undersigned Petition
Found a link to a UK Government beta web site that held a petition on the price of Windows Vista, compared to USA prices.
This next caught my eye – …..petition the Prime Minister to Recognize Borat As The Leader Of Kazakhstan (!)
This petition should be of interest to AlexC.
This petition will be of interest to John as it concerns proposed legislation on taking photos in a public place.
Here we have a petition that publicly funded (UK) software should be released under a free licence, so the whole nation may reap benefits.
This one came as news to me
Fingerprinting is being introduced in thousands of UK Primary Schools as part of a subsidised library package called Junior Librarian that they have purchased, encouraged by central government. New schools are joining the scheme at the rate of around 20 a week. To date, more than 3500 schools and nurseries (manufacturer’s official figure, given to the Daily Mirror) have fingerprinted and photographed 3/4 million children, ranging in age from 3 to 11; impressionable, trusting and naive. Involved companies have given premier partners with access to their SQL database AND a commercial arrangement for the reselling or endorsement or their products.
This is always done without explicit parental consent, and even in some cases, without parental knowledge.
Schools strongly resist sending parents the opt-in consent slips that are used for just about everything else. Some parents only find out AFTERWARDS
Finally, we have a petition for Seb & any other schmokers out there…
Oh yes, and we finally have ADSL installed at home. I’m going to have to use the internet LESS than I did on dial up, as we only get 700 megabytes per month (up AND download :< ), but it means I can do my work in the daytime, so I'm really chuffed that it has arrived.
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