;)
The updates in this one include extended battery life, Flash 3 lite built into the browser (so youtube and iplayer will work), support for standalone widgets, more stable bluetooth connections, faster gallery, and faster Java support, to name but a few. I'm just updating my phone now so I'll let you guys know how it goes.
Check the related link for more details.
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I finally got Service Pack 1 installed for Vista last night. It was an absolute nightmare getting it sorted out. If you have a moment, I'll tell you the tall tale...
It kept failing all the time when it got to "Stage 3" of the installation, and I think I know why it was doing that. I had a bootloader called grub on my PC which gives me the choice to boot up into either Vista or Linux (and also XP, when I had it installed). It was this that was causing the service pack to not install properly beause it was expecting the PC to use the standard MBR (Master Boot Record).
Thing is, I don't use Linux on my PC anymore because I've got it on the server, and it doesn't even boot up anyway. Because of this, for ages I was thinking of fixing up the paritions on my drive. My Vista partition was on the secondary drive and Linux was on the back-end of the primary drive. All the rest of the space was used up by my documents and music etc. The drives were messed up because I used to have XP on the beginning of the primary drive and I was "trying out" Vista along side XP before I moved over to it. What I planned to do eventually was move the Vista partition to the primary drive, remove Linux and grub, and setup the secondary drive to be all one partition. Ya know, all neat and tidy, and I thought maybe now would be a good time to do it.
This, however, proved exceedingly difficult. Firstly I couldn't find any way of moving the Vista partition, so I thought I'd at least get rid of Linux and grub. Secondly, when I got rid of them, Vista would fail to boot properly. I'd get to the log in screen, put in my password, and then it'd just show an empty desktop with no picture, icons, start menu, task bar... nothing! Even using the Vista installation DVD to repair the installation failed.
In the end I had to do something I wasn't too happy with... reinstall Vista. So I did that, reinstalled all my applications and the service pack and get it all set up the way I wanted it, then I got rid of the old partition and tidied them up. Everything's the way I wanted it to be now.
What took the most time though was figuring out why my Adobe suite wouldn't install. For about a day and a half I was frustrated at it saying it installed the shared components but not the actual applications themselves (Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash etc). I found out eventually that it was because I'd installed the Flash 9 browser plug-in before I installed the suite. In the end, I had to completely rid the computer of anything Adobe-esque before it would install. This included:
* Using the Adobe Suite cleaner to remove the shared components.
* Using the Adobe Flash remover to remove the Flash files.
* Using the Windows Install Clean Up application to remove files left over from the attempted installations.
* Deleting both Adobe folders and their contents from the Program Files and Common Files folders.
* Searching the registry and removing anything with Adobe, Macromedia, Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, Bridge, and Acrobat associated with it.
It was one hell of a battle, but everything is set up the way it should and the computer is a little faster for it. I want to say it's because of the Service Pack, but it could very well be because it's a fresh installation. Also, the two things I'd like to see fixed from the last post do appear to have been resolved for now as well. Again, this could be because of a fresh install.
I know this post is a little longer than usual, but I really went through a lot of trouble to get this to work and I wanted SOME record of my achievement somewhere.
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Microsoft have now released their first Service Pack for Windows Vista to the public. I just did an update for Defender and my sound card drivers, then it showed it as available. I'm downloading it right now.
;)
There are two things that I hope to be fixed in this update:
* Faster file manipulation - Copying files on Vista has been a painfully slow affair. I've often given up because it's taken forever to copy a 500Mb video to my PSP, or to my phone, or even to another HDD on the same PC! Early reports say this has been improved by up to 50%. I'd like to see it for myself.
* Folder Viewing - I like to have My Computer to show the items as Tiles grouped by Type, and everything else to be as Details not grouped showing the size, type and date modified for each file (in that order). However, Vista has taken it upon itself to change random folders to the former view and not keep it on the latter! Also when I change them back, I have to add the extra columns and rearrange them myself for each folder. It's extremely annoying and something which never cropped up in any previous version of Windows!
I'll let you all know how it's gone once I've installed the new service pack.
[ UPDATE ] Just came back on to add the screencap above and to make a note for anyone upgrading to SP1. The installation advises that it may take up to an hour to complete and the computer will be restarted several times during the update. My advice is to perform the update at a time when you're not planning to use your computer for a while.
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Yup, just come back from Birmingham after having an inverview there. After reading all of my FHM, playing Hot Pxl for an hour and listening to music all the way back home on the coach, I'm ready to hit they hay.
I managed to take some time to take a browse around the Bullring, a (or perhaps THE) shopping centre in Birmingham. I had a starbucks, I bought Hot Pxl (see above) and I had a go at GT5 Prologue on the PS3 in a CurrysDigital shop. Peeps were asked to compete to see who could get the fastest time. I got 2'25.472 in total for my time round the London track, and I was .009 seconds behind the leader! Darn! Still, silver ain't bad and, being realistic, if I could waltz in and get that close to the top then in all likelyhood someone else could too. I didn't walk away empty handed though. I got a free PS2 t-shirt and GT keyring along with a couple of brochures so that's not bad.
Oh yeah, no weighing today because I'm knackered.
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Yup, just got home now from my last day at Garlands! I've been there for almost 3 1/2 years and worked in a couple of different departments and now I have my degree it's best I move on. I would've left sooner if it weren't for the friends I'd made while I was there. They even got me a card!!
;)
My thanks go to the Outbound Collections crew and those who were in Tech Support.
Best of luck to you all!
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;)
I know some people won't be impressed by this, but I sure am! Just 10 minutes ago I managed to get five stars on Muse's Knights of Cydonia on Hard! Anyone who's seen that song on the game knows it's a tough one, and I know it's not Expert level yet, but it shows I'm making progress nonetheless!
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I couldn't be arsed for ages, but I finally managed to get round to collecting all 242 stars in Super Mario Galaxy. I'd gotten to about 80 ages ago with Luigi but couldn't be pestered, but tonight I fancied playing it so got the remaining 42. To be honest, as pretty as the final ending was, I was a little disappointed. Nintendo could've done more.
Still... a great game! I await the next one!
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This last week I've lost...
-0.5lb!
Err.. hold on... I GAINED weight?!Oh that's right, I threw the diet out the window didn't I? I'm sure everyone who's been on a diet for so long have momentary lapses in it and give in to something(s) fat and greasy! I've still got three slices of pizza left over from last night so I'm going to have them today, and then continue on the diet again. Let's get this lost again!
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Yup... went out last night! I really wanted to have a good time so I threw the diet out the window and took to the Jack Daniels! I can't believe I had so much to drink! I wasn't really counting them to be honest, but I know I had enough for me to head straight home without getting a parmo or pizza, pass out on the bed, then throw up the next morning! Nice huh
On top of all that, I cut my thumb on a shard of glass! I felt something on the sole of my shoe so I reached to pick it off and next thing I know I've got a piece of glass sticking out of me. It's still tender now in fact!
Still, jolly good fun had by all, but I think I'll go back onto the lager next time!
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