May 2009
Finally got Aero Glass on Paige's Dell
May 09 2009 04:41 PM Filed in: Microsoft
Paige purchased a new Dell desktop probably about 6
months ago, it came with Windows Vista Home Premium
and she upgraded to an ATI Radeon graphics card with
256 MB RAM. I helped with the initial set up, mostly
to de-crappify the machine, and one thing that has
never worked from day one is the fancy Aero Glass
theme. If you went to rate the machine, the process
would crash. She was stuck with the crappy Vista
Basic theme. Why would Dell sell a machine, that out
of the box, would not work as advertised? Last night
I was sitting at her machine and I decided to update
the ATI driver. A new driver was released in March of
this year. After installing that I was able to rate
the machine, which rated at 3.8, high enough to
handle Aero Glass. I restarted the desktop window
manager and she now had the Aero Glass theme running.
It’s not the greatest theme in the world, and I
really don’t understand why you need a powerful
machine to run it, but at least now she had it
working on her Dell.
|
Nintendo DSi
May 08 2009 03:41 PM Filed in: Personal
| Video Games
The Nintendo DSi came out recently, it’s an update to
the Nintendo DS Lite handheld gaming system. This
update provides a couple things
I gave my Nintendo DS to my niece, Payton. My nephew, Bryceson, and niece, Jayda, each got one for Christmas, and Payton had been doing chores to earn money to buy one. Since I was getting rid of mine I gave it to her and let her spend her money on games.
I did buy a game to go with it, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. I was a big fan of GTA Vice City, and while I knew this wouldn’t be as big and extravagant as that, being on the small screen, it was getting rave reviews. It is lots of fun. The developers did a great job of bringing the game to the handheld platform.
- Camera
- Wi-Fi internet browsing
- SD Card Slot for adding a card with music on it (MP3 Player)
- Interface similar to Nintendo Wii, where your home screen has a slot for all of the different things you can do, and any games you download.
- DSiWare store and games.
I gave my Nintendo DS to my niece, Payton. My nephew, Bryceson, and niece, Jayda, each got one for Christmas, and Payton had been doing chores to earn money to buy one. Since I was getting rid of mine I gave it to her and let her spend her money on games.
I did buy a game to go with it, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. I was a big fan of GTA Vice City, and while I knew this wouldn’t be as big and extravagant as that, being on the small screen, it was getting rave reviews. It is lots of fun. The developers did a great job of bringing the game to the handheld platform.
Finished more Dorsey Books
I tell you, since I started reading on the train ride
to and from work every day, I’ve been plowing through
some books. It’s been a little over a month since I
finished ‘The Stingray Shuffle’, and I just finished
the last of four more books by Tim Dorsey.
I’ll tell you one thing, the author is very consistent. The first book of his I read, ‘Triggerfish Twist’, was one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. Five books later, and I’d have to give them all the same rating. The books are well written, very imaginative, great plots, great characters, and hilarious. I have one more, ‘Nuclear Jellyfish’, but I’m taking a break and moving on to something else starting next week.
I’ll tell you one thing, the author is very consistent. The first book of his I read, ‘Triggerfish Twist’, was one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. Five books later, and I’d have to give them all the same rating. The books are well written, very imaginative, great plots, great characters, and hilarious. I have one more, ‘Nuclear Jellyfish’, but I’m taking a break and moving on to something else starting next week.