Vistas

During the weekend right before my departure for Euro-trip I had an interesting task to complete: upgrade from Windows Vista Home Premium that came with my Toshiba notebook to the top-of-the-line Windows Vista Ultimate. I did it finally, but not without problems. Let's start with negatives (so we can end on a positive note).
What sucks about Vista 'Anytime Upgrade' program:

• Your computer is supposed to arrive with 'anytime upgrade' DVD if your system is less than Ultimate. Guess what: cheapskate computer manufacturers are usually skipping it...
• Getting the DVD from Microsoft may be problematic: it took me several e-mails, two shipments and the total of four weeks to get it by US Mail...
• The process is time consuming (but, once started, does not require too much interaction from you).

What's good about it:

• The process replaces 'vendor version' of Welcome Center with the original Windows version. It means less obnoxious, useless 'offers' you have to look at...
• You get free system backup feature.
• You get access to network domains.
• You can have video as a wallpaper.
• System seems a little bit more stable than its younger siblings.

And one curiosity: the upgrade totally damaged McAffee Security Center, making it constantly try to start some process that always fail. The attempts to fix the problem using McAffe itself ended with 'The problem cannot be fixed because of an error ' message - highly informative... I had to use resource monitor to discover what really happened. The final solution: first complete uninstall, then reinstallation of the software.

Greetings from the other side of the pond...

I have made it to Poland for the long postponed vacation with my family.
The trip was suspiciously easy: no flight delays, no lost luggage... I especially enjoyed my first (should I say virgin?) flight on board of Airbus 330. It wasn't as good as Boeing 777, but better than 767, 747, and especially DC10.
It was also the first practical test of my secondary GSM phone with United Mobile SIM card. The Samsung D900i worked like a charm. I was rally surprised by the way its default theme works: in the USA it was showing animated landscape with Statue of Liberty in the background; when I turned it on in Amsterdam it changed to a landscape with windmill, then in Warsaw - to a landscape with green fields and trees.
The worst part was the weather that greeted me in Warsaw - dull, murky, cold, with wet snow falling. The good part is that it is supposed to improve; I'm not counting on sudden heat wave, but there should be some more sunshine.
More reports coming later...