Windows

I recently received a downloaded copy of Windows XP SP3 from Microsoft (I ordered the downloadable file, rather than a mailed CD, for installing on one of my Macs), and noticed that, unlike usual disk images, this file had the extension .exe rather than .iso or .img...

To get it to work with VMWare, I needed to either turn the file into an image, or burn it to a physical CD or DVD. After searching fruitlessly for hours, I finally found a great little app, nlite, that helped me burn the files that came out of the .exe archive to a disc (the app is also a great help for slipstreaming an XP install).

To burn the .exe to a disk image or disc:

1. Expand the .exe image by double-clicking on it, and choosing a folder into which to expand the files.
2. Download nlite, and run it.
3. Follow the steps to create a bootable ISO, and select the folder into which you expanded your install files in step 1.
4. Burn the disc, or copy the ISO where you need it, and enjoy!

[Update: I have posted an article about all the computers I've owned].

Pictured below (in the final year of its existence) is the first computer I ever called my own. Built out of scrap parts my Dad brought home from his office, I managed to build the computer as a 33 Mhz 386, with 2 MB of RAM and a 20 MB hard drive, eventually upgrading it (in stages) to a 66 Mhz 486 with 8 MB of RAM and a 512 MB hard drive!

mmm... SCSI in a PC!

How, you may ask, could a diehard Mac/Apple fanboy start on a 386? Well, it was all about budget, you see. Free is good, especially when you're a little kid with absolutely zero dollars in the bank.

This computer died shortly after this photo was taken, when I was unplugging a connector from the motherboard while the computer was still powered up. Something sparked, I got the largest jolt of my life, and the computer started smoking. Oh well, such is life.

The one thing I really miss about those early days of computing (and using PCs in general ;-) was the physicality and brutality of computing. I would spend about 1/8 of the time using the computer with the lid off, working in the guts. I would constantly upgrade parts inside to make it a lean, mean, computing machine. Heck, I could still draw diagrams of the three different motherboards that were housed inside the case pictured above, and make an accurate diagram of all the components I had installed at one time or another, and how they were connected together.

With the complexity of computers these days, and the miniaturization and virtualization of everything, tinkering is much more limited. But that's just nostalgia talking—I'm kind of glad I haven't shocked myself touching my iMac, iPad or iPhone yet.

"We're living in a different world today," Microsoft Vice President Tami Reller said in an interview with CNET News.

The world is a lot different. That's for sure. It's not the same world that Bill Gates successfully launched Windows 95 into, causing a great stir in the world of personal computing. Anti-Microsoft prejudices aside, I don't know if Microsoft knows this 'new world.'

It's a world where flashy and appealing advertising, and a 'hip' CEO makes your software and hardware seem cool (e.g. Apple). It's a world where free as in beer is the norm, and things don't have to be perfect, but if they work okay and solve problems, people stick around (e.g. Google, Twitter). It's a world where office and work communication and collaboration are no longer tied to a certain computer or operating system—it's all done online (e.g. everyone but Microsoft).

Do they know what they're doing? I don't know. Vista was a flop, that's for sure. Windows 7 is much more solid, stable and secure, of course... it's basically Vista, but done correctly. But that doesn't matter so much. What matters is that Microsoft's operating system works well, gets out of the user's way, and costs nothing, or as close to nothing as possible.

The OS now works well, so Microsoft gets a point there. But Windows 7 is still not refined enough or kind enough to be a serious operating system—it feels to me somewhat like Mac OS 10.1 felt like—nice and stable compared to 10.0, but still way too gaudy, with candy-stripe lines, bright bubbly colors, and too much 'bling' to do serious work. Also, Microsoft loses big time on the cost aspect. A guy like me couldn't survive without business premium, and that would set me back more than two Hamiltons. The only software packages I have ever spent that much money on are Final Cut Express and Adobe Creative Suite—and those programs replaced multi-thousand dollar solutions in days past, so in essence they're dirt cheap.

C'mon Microsoft: up the ante. I'm not going to buy Office ever again, since I work in the cloud, with local backups, so you're going to have to get me on your OS. That's not going to happen unless you hit 3/3. Give Apple something to mock, and maybe I'll consider you.