However this morning (Sunday), horror struck as my wife informed me her latest Win7 build (Release 7201) stopped working (7:40 AM).  She couldn’t login to her desktop.  Being the tech guy that I am, her hard drive is has 2 partitions, one for the OS (40GB) and the rest for “Data” ~ 120GB and every user/app setting is backed up to the Data drive.  I tried loging in to her desktop 3 times (8:40, second cup of coffee and Molly by my side) to realize it was time to boot in Safe Mode.  Logging in with Safe Mode I found 1.) Windows Media Player netowrking service consumes a lot of network and CPU bandwidth once enabled and 2.) Network share of a nearby (Win7, of course) PC in Sleep mode caused boot delays.  Still after disabling Startup programs in the boot menu, I was unable to boot up properly. (9:30 AM)

Windows 7:  Fools game or Mastermind of time management?

Today was a tricky one to have troubles with a PC. I had a flight to catch (which I missed) at 4:24, had to leave home by 2:00 in order to catch the flight, although post July 4th traffic would kill off any such aspirations.  Also I was informed of a honey-do list that included A.) Fix the back door from opening so Molly could not escape, B.) Fix the teeter swing in back yard C.) Get milk, and D.) Pick up prescriptions, and most important E.) Fix my PC, even if it requires installing “With Windows 2.0… I don’t care what version of Windows!!!” I could have hyperventilated with all that was to be accomplished by 2:00.  Windows 2.0 honey?  C’mon, I don’t have a copy of that anymore, that would require a tript to my friend Doug Dayton’s house (Microsoft’s 169th employee and Windows OEM Sales Guru) and there’s just not enough time for that (10:30).

Kicked off file system restore.  Took a shower and finished packing.   Attempted “Repair PC” option from Boot menu.  Started new Windows 7 Install (10:45) which finishes in near record time thanks to streamlined install process.  Reviewed USB ports (drivers) and installed programs post install before heading to Fred Meyer (11:30).  Installed MS Money and Office 2010 Tech Preview.  Started Windows Backup (11:45) and went to Fred Meyer.  Returned (12:15) backup complete, yay!  Next time this restore process will only take an hour or less.  Stopped for awhile and to have lunch with Molly and Cami. Chicken sandwich.

Wow!  How could this happen to me on the day like this, little would I know it would only get worse in Tacoma Narros toll traffic *sigh* and so continued restoring Cami’s Laptop with all personal files by 1:30.  Forgets to install Pidgin, so she takes upon herself to install it herself (bless her) so we can chat on IM tonight from my hotel room.  It seems as though 98% of reinstall and restore tasks are complete (still need to fine tune network share, wake on lan, install Java and Business Accounting, and a few other small items…) so a sigh of relief.

It’s beautiful outside although clouds are flying high Cami and I go outside and lay on the grass and talk about the weekend, our rental in Oregon, and how nice it would be to have our own home here (in Washington).  I take mental notes about packing cell phone battery charger, medications, and throw on a quick deodorant before heading out the door.  Sends text to Cami (to her fresh Windows 7 PC) from my phone while driving.  Whew, everything is okay!!!

Did Windows 7 just save my day and avert a disaster of the most extraordinary kind? 
Someone is lucky that Windows 7 is so amazing, or that she has an engineer as a husband! 

Happy Monday!

P.S. What went wrong with Win7 in the first place?  I’m not convinced that it was Windows fault since it’s running fine on another laptop and a home built PC, and take more issues with the hack jobs that Sony did when coming up with Drivers for Vista, and of course there are no new drivers for this Windows 7, and Sony just expects you to run Vista Home for the rest of its life.  Anyways I’m suspicious of the Sony drivers, which I had uninistalled after installing them before.  So moral of the story is, Sony laptop owners beware.  I always seem to have most issues with drivers for Sony products whenever any configuration outside of the shipped OS is used.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/25_most_popular_windows_tips

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/21_steps_make_your_pc_betterfasterstronger

Thanks for all the kind feedback about the latest Rangefinder article on securing your images for online portolios and online proofing. 

Frequently in interviews and computer science classes the rhetorical question gets asked, “Would Windows be so successful if it was more secure from the start?”  I think that’s a great question, one deserving more contemplation rather than declaring abolsutely whether it’s true or not.  If Windows was more secure, would it have been user friendly enough for adoption by the masses?  (UAC annoyances anyone?)  Of course now that Windows is on practically every desk and lap in the world, there is a bit more to worry about if we don’t address the security issues.

Now, I wonder if there are any parallels to the way photographers share their images online.  What is there to be afraid of?  Are you afraid of the embarassment that others will poke fun that your work isn’t relevant or compelling?  Are you afraid that someone might get away without paying for a couple hacked up 5×7 prints?  Are you afraid that your clients will get mad if their images are passed around online without their permission? 

Well then, start by addressing all your fears one by one instead of going the opposite extreme and locking them down tight.  Stop using gaudy borders and don’t watermark your images to death.  Take away all of the distracting elements and let a person focus on the quality and crafstmanship of your photography.  Go to a couple workshops to improve your digital imaging or photographic skills and get yourself inspired!  Make sure your clients know in advance that you own the copyright to your images (of them) and that you may at your own discretion use the work in a public forum for portfolio and publicity of your photography business.  Restrictions in usage rights due to model release and negotations for privacy should be an exception rather than the rule if you are to keep your business moving forward.  Because if you can’t show your work, you can’t sell your services as a photographer.

So lighten up on your heavy handed use of watermarks and JavaScript to lock down your images. Really spend the time to think about how you can turn your strategy upside down by creating business oportunities through the way your images are displayed and shared online. 

So I hooked a switch to two of my PCs because I didn’t have long enough cables for both to go directly into my router, and because I was tired of connecting to one of them via the wireless network.  Somehow this broke my network and file sharing to and from Vista.  I spent an embarassing amount of time troubleshooting this yesterday.  It boils down to the fact that NetBios over TCP/IP had to be enabled on the network card, and it was, but the tests I ran proved that it was not enabled, hence the problem. 

So if your networking or file shares with other XP computers all of a sudden stop working here is something to keep in mind.  You can test this my seeing whether you can connect by IP address.  If you can connect by IP address but not by the machine name, then here’s one thing you can do.  Make sure that NetBios is enabled on your network card, and make the following change in your registry:

- Enter the registry
- HKEYLocalMachines/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/NetBt/Parameters
- Double Click “transportbindname”
- enter the value \Device\ (use the backslashes) hit ok.
- reboot

I spent time with Linksys tech support several times, but they refused to help beyond ensuring Internet and LAN connections to my XP machines.  And, of course, Microsoft tech support doesn’t come free.

If you want the long and painful version of this story, look here:  http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3881172&SiteID=17

Cheers!