I exist again.

Well, sorta. I've got the system formatted and Win XP installed. I've installed all of the varous update packs and patches, and I've torn Outlook Express out by the roots. I've gotten Mozilla up and running, but I've yet to find and copy over all of my custom mods, and my mail isn't working yet, because its trying to download from a spam filter I haven't installed yet...

Still, at least I can read my LJ, and webcomics and stuff.

Yawnies!

Well, I'm awake again. I managed to get to bed around 8:00 am, and I'm already up, so I guess that counts as my first accomplishment for the day.

Its taking some time to get used to Windows XP. Everything is in colors. The wrong colors. Especially the wrong colors for someone who's color blind. I need a color scheme where I can SEE the color distinctions. And its not like its going to be easy to fix. The customization system ALSO assumes you can see colors perfectly. It looks like I'm going to have to spend hours trolling the theme sites for useful themes, and trying them out. Not my favorite way to spend my time.

I've also already caught XP in a couple of ... I don't know if they're bugs or infelicities. I changed a couple of volume label names, and they refused to change. After I rebooted, they had the new names... Although I just checked, and now they change immediately... go figure. The other is more of a bother. I copied a file off of a (possibly wonky) bit of magnetic media. Now I can't move it, rename it, or delete it because XP claims "some other process might be using it." This state has survived several reboots. As far as I can find out, no process is touching the file, and it has all the same permissions and ownerships as files I can touch. I'm gonna see if I can find and/or use the sysprep tool which is supposed to allow you more file control.

On the positive side, a whole bunch of wonkiness that I was having to deal with from win98 is suddenly gone. I don't crash whenever I move more that 10 meg from one directory to another, and it no longer is stuck on reverse-alphabetic sort for everything. I've also noticed a marked increase in download speeds. Before the upgrade I typically downloaded files at 7-10 KB/s, now I often see 150-180 KB/s. It now often takes longer to install a patch than it does to download it. That alone is a major win. There's also a whole bunch fixed in Windows handling of dismounted and/or unformated devices. The installation was also the easiest so far, with the one exception of having to know too much about Windows domains when it came to configuring the network.

I haven't installed much other than mail and internet clients so far, so I don't know how well my other programs will work on the new system. I suppose I'll find out in the next few days.

Poo! as _sps_ would say.

So, I've been looking forward to this LJ meetup, since the last one was such a success. This time though, folks keep telling me they may not be there.

_sps_ has voiced doubts about being there. nineashe isn't going. Neither is azrhey. Is ANYBODY I know going to be there? I get nervous in groups when I don't know anyone...

Just so as to prevent confusion.

taxlady and I ARE going to be at the LJ meet tonight. Hope to see folks there!