Windows Vista Revisited

So, a while back I mentioned that the dual boot configuration on my laptop was one of the signs of a war waging between Windows (Vista) and alternatives (currently Suse with KDE 3.5). Back then I wasn't impressed with a number of things, mainly:

• Suse: not all my hardware works straight away. An nvidia driver that didn't support my graphics card (too new) was automagically installed and caused by screen to wipe out as soon as X started. The touchpad doesn't work when I'm docked, with another mouse attached. The display problem was solved in the next update to Suse.
  
• Windows: Switching the dock on when windows is on (forgetting to plug it in) crashes windows to oblivion (blue screen of death). Linux happily keeps on running, telling me the adapter is now plugged in, activating my mouse and periferals.
• Suse: multiple screens and linux still don't play nicely together.
• Windows: Some multi display settings are now arcane to set; half of the options were grayed out in one place, but not in another.
• Windows: After upgrading my RAM it told me I needed to buy a licence for windows, as my hardware had changed. (I have a removable cdrom drive and docking station. Aparently this presents windows with too many hardware configurations and it decides to deactivate itself as a result).
• Windows: Whilst trying to copy a lab audio CD (no protected content); I'm sorry dave, I can't do that. Linux happily rips the cd to disk and asks me how many copies I want to burn. This is Vista's DRM at work.

The lost two points are basically a show-stopper for me. I do NOT have time to call Microsoft every time I undock my laptop and take out the CD-rom drive, or whatever triggered the deactivation. Nor am I amused by my computer telling me that I can do something, but doesn't want to. I actually like a lot of the features in KDE more than I do the features in Windows. I actually need more linux tools than I need windows tools. In short: Windows lost. I still have the dual-boot. It now runs XP for when I need to do a very few things for work (the license is also provided to me by my work). I'm thinking of moving that into a virtual environment and ditching the whole dual-boot.

There's a very in-depth story about why Vista DRM and related 'features' suck here: A cost analysis of Windows Vista content protection.

A Quick note on Cell press RSS feeds

The Cell RSS feeds recently went AWOL. There's no longer a link to them from the new journal pages, but if the URL of the journal homepage is changed from http://etcetcetc/home to http://etcetcetc/rss a page giving a link to the RSS feed is shown. Whether the RSS feeds will work remains to be seen; currently some feeds appear to be even older than old (now removed) feeds.

The Kodak EDAS 290 and WinXP

Just posting this as somehow I couldn't find the info anywhere else and kodak has deleted all support information:
The kodak EDAS290 imaging machine we use at the lab (with Kodak 1D software) was recently migrated to a new computer running Windows XP. Windows could see the camera, the camera works, but the software insists the camera is nowhere to be found. The problem and solution are as follows: the driver that windows XP automatically uses for the camera isn't supported by the 1D software. The driver files are located in the program files directory under 'common files' and then somewhere under 'kodak'. Telling windows to use the driver can be done by selecting 'update driver' under properties of the kodak camera (under 'imaging devices' in the hardware manager) and choosing 'I will select the driver to install' (or, look for driver and specify the location, fiddle around a bit under the directory mentioned above to find the exact location). Two drivers show up on our system: the one that has a name slightly different from the current name is the correct one (I think it has the word 'zoom' in the title). Installing the correct driver should cause a direct detection of the camera, and restores functionality of the software.