Cæptain's Log

There’s too many ‘reviews’ about Windows 7 out there to bother doing my own full fledged “COMPLETE WINDOWS 7 REVIEW, WHY OSX IS STILL THE ONLY THING WE USE AND WE HAVE NO BUSINESS DOING THIS WHATSOEVER!” (see Wired.com).  I’m only doing this to add my little perspective of using one on a netbook.  I’ve also been a Windows user since ’95 and I’ve tested at least one flavor of every operating system they’ve released, including Nautilus (windows ’99) and Longhorn (pre-vista).  I’ve also taken every chance I could get to test other reasonable alternatives to Windows, as I’m very familiar with the disadvantages to using an operating system with over 90% market share.  I’ve found that until OSX becomes a more competitive option (ie: Apple releases a more eclectic line of hardware available to people with sub $1000 budgets or provides support to people who want to run OSX on non-apple hardware) then I submit to you that unless you’re A.) not a service professional that uses Windows because it’s what all of your clients will use and it enables maximum compatibility in networking and in troubleshooting; B.) you are very skilled and knowledgeable (or wish to become so) with the terminal interface of your particular distro and have an impressive command of your operating systems and C.) don’t need to use any proprietary software and all your hardware has open source compatible alternatives that function well enough for you to use them then Windows is your best bet for an OS.

I bit the bullet and loaded Win Se7en on my netbook recently and the process was as smooth as ever before.  I have an official beta key I got a while ago, but I’ve used it a few times so far and they stopped giving them out AFAIK; so you’re just gonna have to use one of Orbit30′s cracks until it’s up for sale, in which case you should only install the most affordable version of Se7en for your budget -or just wait for your crack to fail and find the next working one.  Doesn’t bother me.  Just find a 32-bit (x86) image of Build 7600 and run any number of programs that will load it onto a flash drive and make it bootable for you.  I used MagicIso – mount the Se7en iso and plug in your 4gb+ thumbdrive (some don’t boot right so use a sandisk cruiser or known compatible drive to be sure), then you just use the make bootable feature built in and dump the se7en image onto the drive.  Boot, configure, install, done.

Here’s a link to the torrent I used to download the proper build of Se7en:

http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/2041552/7080272/

There are plenty other builds that will work just fine, but I like to have confirmed torrents and I can assure you that you’re not missing anything if you get this – he included a good working orbit30 activator for if M$ turned your beta key off and some other simple stuff you don’t need.

Hit me up for a demonoid invite if you need it.

It migrated all my files (including the installers for my programs) and once I finished reinstalling my software and copying my personal files over to the new directories (it creates a complete backup of your windows installation called windows.old) I was good to go.  I also prefer a minimalist OS that, although is feature-full, stays out of my way when it’s business time – which is why I praise Micro$oft for retaining the classic windows theme.

The only real catastrophic change from moving to Se7en from XP, assuming you’ve never touched Vista, is the use of administrative privlidges to run certain processes and the UAC service.  All this means is that certain software will require you to authorize it to run if it’s doing anything that effects system settings.  Minor inconvenience and you can either leave it at the default ‘black out screen and everything I’m doing’ mode, or what I use, the ‘inconvenient pop-up’ mode – or just turn the bastard off…

As far as benefits go, my favorite is the new taskbar.  You can not only re-arrange blocks in the taskbar, but you can ‘pin’ programs to it that stick in that location and minimize to an icon when closed – this replaces the space-eating ‘quick launch’ bar and is exceptionally well done.

As far as performance on my D150 goes, it’s probably a bit slower (due to all the extra stuff I run over xp).  Of course, I’m comparing it to a fresh install of XP, which as everyone knows, if you don’t maintain the registry and clean shit off of it all the time, it bogs down exceptionally.

I’ve been using Se7en on several machines before this one, and I can honestly say that if Win7 has the same problem as XP did of getting ‘dirty’ and needing a cleanup, it’s barely noticible and stays the way it’s at.  It’s consistent.  I still run Auslogics BoostSpeed now and then to keep things at max performance, but I can run Firefox 3 with about 7-10 tabs open, Thunderbird 3beta and an Adobe program like Photoshop or Dreamweaver and while idling still have about half my memory and 3/5 my processor to spare.  I should note that I’ve got 2gb of ram (mandatory for everyone – you’re stupid if you only use 1gb and have room to upgrade – it’s so damn cheap these days – you obviously have no idea what we went through back in the days to get just a second 128mb stick of ram; it was like you had to slay a damn dragon and take out a second mortgage to get one… blah blah </rant>) and I also run GMABooster (it’s free but if you donate anything, like $5, then he gives you an activation key that keeps it from turning itself off and mandating that you re-download it every week).

I’m about out of words for this right now, comment back if I need to elaborate on something.  Hope this helps somebody make a decision about Se7en, even if it’s just an opinion (not that I was trying to be persuading).

If you’re looking to get some serious wireless performance out of your netbook (this tut is for the Aspire One D150, but the general principle is the same for all of them) then you might consider adding an external RP-SMA jack + antenna to it.  A subtle addition is adding 802.11 N support.  Read my previous posts on the topic for more on that.  I positioned the antenna mount in place of the Kensington Lock, so if you can’t afford to sac your KLock then you may want to look for an alternate location (I found this to be the best location, imo).

This is a very simple mod to do; you need:

• Standard philips screwdriver
• Thin, flat yet stiff tool (xacto knife, razor blade, thin jewlers screwdriver, etc) to pop the keyboard (very tight)
• Dremel Tool, small drill or similar device for tooling plastic
• U.FL pigtail to RP-SMA Male cable; mine was 12″ but I think 6″ should do; you want a nut / lock washers too
  • Optional: RP-SMA Male – Female Right angle adapter for a better antenna placement across the back
• RP-SMA antenna – whatever works for you
  • Optional: 802.11N Mini-Pci card – refer to previous posts on topic

Start by gutting the netbook and unscrewing everything you see.

Use your flat tool to pop off the keyboard.  There is one spring-loaded tab above the F8 key that needs to be depressed; the remaining tabs are on the sides and are part of the bezel.  This is challenging if you are unfamiliar with the process – be gentile but don’t be afraid to use some force to pop the keyboard out.  You may want to use more than one tool to assist in getting under the keyboard to pop it off.  Disconnect all the ribbon cables you see and unscrew the bezel.  Pop her off.

Here is an exposure of the right side – the yellow tape is the backside of the PCI slot; that is where your cable needs to end.  Notice the black and white cable running from said location up to the right joint – right next to the KLock.  These are the existing antenna wires.  Leave them alone – no reason to remove them.

Locate the Kensington Lock here.  It’s attached to the case with 2 plastic mushroom plugs.  These are not intended to be removed, so you will need to tool them off.  They go without much of a fight or mess.

Note the bit I used on my Dremel Tool – very nice for this application (it’s a drum cutting bit of sorts).

Next you need to tool a larger hole in the side of the case for the SMA mount.  Take your time and be gentile – I emphasized on the right (short) side of the hole, and the remainder space was completely covered with my small washer – it works seamlessly.

Mount the SMA adapter in the hole.  This can get tricky depending on how your cable was made because the hinge mount passes under where the lead is still fixed in place.  Don’t jerk your lead around or you may disconnect the wire from the jack.  You should unscrew the hinges and place the jack in the hole, then gently return the hinges to their mounts.  It may take some troubleshooting skills to get it to work, but it’s not difficult by any means.

Now you just route your new antenna wire on with the other 2, return everything to normal (take your time) and plug your antenna into a U.FL jack on your card.  If you went with a .11N card, you need all 3 antennas; I used the far #3 plug for the external ant.  I don’t know the mechanics but it should work in any configuration.  G card users can just leave one of their antennas free and should be fine – if you ever intend to upgrade to N in the future you are now N capable!

I can’t attest to the performance gain from just replacing an internal antenna with an external one, but if you used an N card with a compatible N router (I went with XSpan .11N 2.0) then I can confirm a working (theoretical) 300 Mbps wireless connection.  To top it off, I’m using Madwifi drivers and can confirm their functionality as well.

Thanks for following this development – comments are welcome.

This is about the civics quiz you can take here.  I contested 2 of their answers.

I have just a few comments on the civics quiz:

#33.  If Taxes = Spending then shouldn’t it most logically result in no debt (the only assumption is that there was no prior debt).  Under the same conditions, however, each person is not taxed equally, nor does the government spend equal amounts on each person (the wealthy are taxed to benefit the un-wealthy), so to state that tax per person = spending per person would be false as well.

#30.  I would like to contest that the best way to ‘stimulate’ the economy is to increase spending.  The quiz verifies that taxation should decrease, however, to simultaneously increase spending would mean to differ the taxation in the form of money supply inflation or through debt, which put serious hampers on economic productivity, even if the cost is delayed for a short time.  Additionally, this implies that government can utilize the money better than individuals who earned it can.
This diverts resources from productive uses and utilizes them in less productive or counter-productive uses.
You also have to consider government’s track record with spending money and it’s effectiveness of utilizing it.  Even if the money the government used was completely free and did not redirect wealth from any other sector of any economy, it could still be counter productive, as, for instance, if they were to ‘bail-out’ a certain sector of the economy (like the auto industry) then that would maintain that industries hold on important assets (like land, factories, resources, people, etc) that are clearly being improperly utilized (otherwise they would not ‘need’ a ‘bailout’) and should be reallocated by the market to more productive uses.

Just some of my thoughts I hope you consider.  Thanks.

Post a comment back if you would like me to elaborate on my position on this.