Well, I have a licence for Windows XP professional, and while I am not one to generally endorse Microsoft. I find myself having installed Windows XP on my Acer Aspire 4315. I’m going to dual boot it with Ubuntu 8.10 when it is released.

My decision to install Windows came from the small hardware issues I was having with Ubuntu 8.04. I was having intermittent wireless problems with the Atheros wireless drivers, Printing issues and various other little things under Linux. I am pleased to say that I have no such problems under Windows XP. I do hope Intrepid (Ubuntu 8.10) will solve many if not all the issues I was having. But for now, Windows XP is working like a dream. I guess I am hoping Linux will have no hardware issues once Windows XP becomes completely unsupported as I will not upgrade from Windows XP to any other Windows version.

I almost hate to say I am running Windows XP on it. but, like I said while I am not generally one to endorse Microsoft products. We live in a world where hardware is designed for Windows and is generally better supported under Windows.

I have got everything working like a dream, Sound, Modem, Network, Wireless, Dual View/TV out, Webcam etc…. I have even found Windows Live Writer to be an excellent desktop blogging package.

For those of you looking for Windows XP drivers for Acer Aspire 4315 Notebook. Google search the following drivers. All implement well and so far have given me no cause for concern

AHCI_Intel_v7.5.0.1017_XP
Audio_Realtek_v6.0.1.5413_R167_XP_Vista
Chipset_Intel_v8.3.0.1013_XP32
Lan_Marvell_v10.15.4.3
Modem_Lite-on_v.2.1.77.9
TouchPad_Synaptics_v9.1.11.0_XP32
VGA_Intel_v6.14.10.4847win2k_xp
Wireless_Atheros_V5.3.0.67_XP_XB63_XB62(WHQL)

If you know of better drivers please leave a comment. These work for me but I can’t guarantee they will work for everyone else..

It’s really sad when you read things like this.

Police say a young man who was shot three times at his home in Papatoetoe early on Sunday was executed while walking up to his front door.

Man gunned down at front door in violent end-of-winter weekend 

and

Police have spoken to a "person who is of interest to them" following a two-hour sexual assault on two teenage tourists at Tokomaru Bay, north of Gisborne.

`Person of interest’ pinpointed in attack inquiry

It makes me sick to the stomach to think I am proud to be a kiwi. Stories like this really make me wonder what this country is coming too.  Bring back the death penalty. I really think it’s time this country ditch the "slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket" justice system.

I know it doesn’t just happen in New Zealand, but I was always proud of our kind hearted nation. Though that is slipping away.

Well, after listening to a rather low quality version which is hosted on YouTube. I am still not sure whether I will buy the new album when it comes out. I have all their others including St. Anger so I may just to add it to the collection and hope there has been better work put into their other songs on the album.

Personally I feel they are sounding more like a Garage band cutting their teeth, rather than the seasoned gods of rock we all came to know in the 80′s.

Is it titled "The day that never comes" because Metallica is never to return to the god status they had with Master of Puppets etc.?? I have to say that at least Kirk seems to have been given some freedom again.

Have a listen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UNfNpjWz-Y

Ok, I am so done with winter. I am sick of the cold, wet and windy days.

We get lucky with the occasional sunny day but then we get slammed with more cold winds and heavy or just constant rain.

I can’t seem to warm up today. It kind of feels too early to be snuggled up in front of the heater. I am already wearing so many layers I’d have to go buy larger clothes to get anymore on. eeek. Not a pretty mental image. I guess sitting in front of the computer doesn’t exactly generate a lot of heat so I suppose I shouldn’t complain too loudly. But on the other hand, going out for a walk to warm up isn’t that appealing.

Our section looks more like a flood zone, the lawns and gardens can’t keep up with the water. We have our own mote across our driveway. It’s looking more like there should be a draw bridge in there somewhere.

It is just me, or are the weeks coming and going faster than a revolving door?

I must be having fun, can’t think of why though. Other than the usual work, eat & sleep, It’s not like i’ve done anything of real interest lately. We have caught some of the olympics on TV which has passed some time.

Mum and Dad came to stay last friday night, then headed down to Wellington on Saturday to see Grandma (dad’s mum). They came back Saturday evening then decided to drive back to Auckland. It would’ve been good to spend a bit more time with them but they both had to go back to work on Monday.

I got a txt from dad at about 1:30am on Sunday saying they’d made it to Taupo so I was able to sleep a bit better knowing they weren’t stuck some where in the middle of nowhere.

Seeing the amount of snow fall it was probably just as well, they managed to get through National Park, although they did get the van buried in snow. Unfortunately I don’t think there are photo’s of it, as it would’ve been too dark, but it would’ve been an interesting pic.

I guess I shouldn’t bore the world to death so I won’t waffle on anymore.

Just wasting time reading the Trademe Message forum and saw a link to this. Thought I’d post it for all you Microsoft Office lovers

Go and Download it then we don’t have to remember to save as Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP (.doc) when we want to email OpenOffice.org documents.

But then you all have OpenOffice.org don’t you..

We were at the supermarket this morning. While it wasn’t overly busy, when people decide to make their own car parks you really have to wonder about the mentality of someone.

This guy pulls up, parks his car taking up more then a few. Not only does he park taking up a string of car parks, he has a trailer.

Would it have been too hard to use the two carparks at the end of the row where he would’ve fitted. Obviously this takes too much brain power for some people.

Ok, Rant over

For those of you like me, who were stuck with a problem of AMSN not logging in. I really wasn’t too keen on the idea of compiling AMSN from svn.

There is a new package available which doesn’t seem to have shown up on the Update Manager for Ubuntu Hardy yet.

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/a/amsn/ Download and install amsn_0.97+final-0ubuntu5.1_i386.deb

Hopefully it will eventually show up in the Update Manager but for those of you who are impatient like me I thought I would post this.

Yay, I can login to MSN again..

I’m just sitting here sneazing my head off, Such a pretty sight Not.

I have been reading the Ubuntu Website & Forums

I’m kind of excited about the upcoming release of Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) You can view the Release Schedule

I guess I’m interested to see how upgrading from Hardy goes on my laptop. The last upgrade I did using a package manager ( yum on Fedora 8 ) left some problems lying around with packages that caused dependancy conflicts with future Fedora 9 updates. It wasn’t really hard to remove the problematic packages from Fedora 8 on Fedora 9. Though it would have been nice if Fedora had taken care of them to begin with. It’s not like they were packages from other repos.

Anyway, It will be good to see how Ubuntu handles upgrading Hardy to Intrepid. Ubuntu 8.10 release is scheduled for 30th October 2008, so I will let you all know how I get on with upgrading my Acer Aspire 4315 laptop.

I am now done with winter. I have managed to land myself a slight cold which is not pleasant. though I’m sure the tissue manufacturers are loving me for it.

I’ve had it for a few days now and while, I think it’s getting better. It’s still not what a girl wants. We are having bitterly cold winds and a few heavy rain falls which is ok when I’m snuggled up on the couch in front of the fire at night.

I guess I can’t really complain to much. The country was hit by a couple of storms which caused quite a bit of damage, that went around us. So we could be much worse off. We still have a roof, power and phone etc, and the fences are still intact.