The end is near for Windows XP...

Truth in advertising: I'm writing this post about mainly my computer, but I'm writing it from my tablet....

In less than three months, The Anti-Christ will discontinue support for Windows XP. Which means if you're using xp, upgrade now. What Microsoft wants you to do is go out and buy a new computer and/or a new version of the latest incarnation of Windows. But the problem is that when it comes quality, Windows trends to skip generations. Windows 98 was good. Windows ME was Crap (that's probably why I became so computer literate. My very first computer had ME on it). XP was good. Really good (I upgraded as soon as it came out). Windows Vista was called Windows ME, Service Pack 1. Windows 7 was really good (came with my laptops). And Windows 8 is essentially Windows ME, Service Pack 2. Basically they tried to put the touchscreen experience on equipment that doesn't have touchscreens. Abd I'm not to thrilled with the ui experience. If you're absolutely forced to upgrade, look for Windows 7.

As for me, tonight, I'm doing one last system wipe. I'm sticking with XP to the bitter end. I think my next Windows upgrade is going to be when I buy my next computer. But I have my reasons for sticking with XP. All of my hardware is compatible with it abd I have drivers. But the real reason are my games. Some of them are really old, and XP is the most advanced os they'll run under. I don't think security will be an issue, as my Tower sits behind a NAT firewall, and Google Chrome will still support XP for while. Besides with two 1 tB hard drives, there's plenty of space for my new primary os: Linux. It's free, and unlike Windows 8, kde stills has the start menu...

Stuff you don't wanthappening to you while taking a pee, or my adventure with maintenance...

So a chronic problem I've had living in my apartment has been the bathroom fan. Specifically it has worked more often than it worked. It worked fine when I moved in, but then it died. Went to the office, told about it, and the maintenance guy came in and replaced it. Couple of months later, abd it dies again. This time, I went to the office and nothing happened.  It took a couple of times, but then somebody finally came out. Two weeks later, it dies again. Maintenance guy was out troubleshooting another issue, abd I told him about it. Abd I was told that he needed a work order from the office. So I went to the office again right away. And it was ignored. A few weeks later, there was another issue abd this time I ended up on the phone with the home office of the real estate company who owns the building, and I made a passing comment about the fan always going out. Very soon after that the fan was replaced (this time, I was told that it had to be special ordered). Soon after that, the fan started rumbling (but it still worked), and it came loose in its mounting (like it was going to fall). And I now noticed The Drip. Want much, just a nuisance. But it was still a leak. Fast forward to Tuesday night when I went to take a leak, and I was hit with a bigger steam than what I was releasing. Finally I sent an email to the apartment office again, abd this time he was there early in the morning. He told us the leak is a roofing issue, and it'll be a week to fix it. Again the bathroom fan is on special order. This morning, I heard some very loud stomping on the roof, abd I hope it was the roofer. I've seen a little bit of a drip, but nothing like before. Now I just hope we get our fan back. I think I'll get it fixed. I did tell my apartment manner that I'm ok going without one, but she'll be the one dealing with the mold when I move out....

Ok, I should probably be going to bed, but

I should be going to bed right now. But I can’t. I’m too wired & and watching the Grammys. Here’s the best new artist:

Historically, the best new artist grammy can be considered the kiss of death for a musician’s career (remember Men at Work, anyone?). I hope this doesn’t follow the trent. I actually like Macklemore…

Here we go again

The Seahawks are back in the Super Bowl. Eight years ago, when I started this blog, they were on their way to the Festivus Maximus as well. This year, I think they've better chances than when went up against the Steelers. I'll be rooting for them, even if I can't catch the game....

We're going up against Denver, in New York. Two west coast teams playing on the east coast, about as close to neutral territory that I can see.  It could be worse. We could've been facing Indianapolis (who defeated us at Indianapolis) or Cincinnati. Or God forbid, the Patriots. Then again that would've been a chance to give Tom Brady a very much well deserved beating. Though a Manning took care of that for us. Now we just have to take care of a Manning....

It's basically going to be the best offense verses the best defense. Offense sells tickets, bit defense wins games (like the last play interception last night).

Go Hawks.

So I got it...

So I got my phone a couple of days ago. Rooting it initially wasn't that hard. I just simply went to the HTC dev website and followed the instructions to unlock my boot loader, abd then flashed su and a recovery. I then flashed a couple of ROMs and found one that I liked. The ed a problem last night with it, though. My boy lost relocked itself, So I had to go through the whole process of relocking & unlocking again. This time I ran the rumrunner tool & abd got S-off so my phone will stay unlocked.

As for the ROM that I'm running, it's a slightly modified version of the Team 420 ROM that posted to xda. It's still a work in progress (I'll need to make a couple of more modifications to it, but I think I've found my daily driver).

What I like about my phone (for those of you who don't know, it's the Sprint HTC One):

The LTE. My previous phone had wimax, which was a separate radio. And I had issues with battery life with it. With LTE, I dint see as much battery usage, abd coverage is only going to get better I hope.

The partitioning. I can't put an an external memory card in it, but because the /data partition expands dynamically, I also don't need a third party app (like link2sd or a2sd) to link everything to a hidden partition on my sd card. Managing space may become an issue down the road, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

The power. 2gB's of ram, and a quad core processor. Yeah, she's fast enough for you. And since I've finally got it rooted and unlocked, I can probably over-clock it if I wanted, to.

And there's also the Beats audio, the aluminium, unibody construction, the 4.7 inch display, the camera...

I think I'm going to regret this...

So I was at Spamazon this afternoon and noticed I could get an HTC One for only a penny if I renew my contact. I figured why not? I had been upgrade eligible since October, and while my EVO 3D had served faithfully, I'm now only getting two hours' worth of charge before I had to recharge it (I had to get av external battery for it). So long story short I'm committed to Sprint for another two years...

Happy New Year

2013 is about to leave, and 2014 is about to begin. My resolutions this year:

• Get out of debt. When I apply for credit cards, if I have the option, I always ask for a low limit, so I can’t get into trouble, but still the balances just don’t go down…
• Bring down my blood sugar numbers. I constantly get yelled at when I go to my doctor. With Obamacare, I now (I hope) will be able to get something done.
• Write more in this blog. I use Twitter and Facebook a lot, but this was my original soap box on the internet…

Happy New Year to you. If you’re drinking, then please don’t drive. A DUI is a lot more expensive than a cab…

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