gaelicwizard - Slashdot User

Quirks and Tips For Upgrading To Vista 236

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday March 20, 2007 @02:43PM from the clean-but-safe dept.

jcatcw writes "Computerworld's Scot Finnie has some advice for those considering an upgrade to Vista. He praises the work Microsoft has done on the installation program, but thinks it still presents problems for those who wish to upgrade. He recommends the free Windows Vista Upgrade Adviser. Then, be sure to pick the best edition for your use." From the article: "Don't bother wiping your hard disk. Just run the in-place upgrade from your previous installation. You'll be given the option to perform either an Upgrade or Custom (advanced) installation. Opt for the Custom install to clean-install Vista, and Windows Vista Setup does something smart: It creates a folder called Windows.old in your root directory that contains your old Documents and Settings, Program Files and Windows folders. (Note that on my test machine, this added step used an additional 7GB of disk storage.)"

Submission + - SAN's and disk utilization

Submitted by

pnutjam

on Tuesday March 20, 2007 @02:40PM

pnutjam writes: "I work for a small to medium mental health company as the Network Administrator. While I think a SAN is a bit of overkill for our dozen servers it was here when I got here. We currently boot 7 servers from our SAN and all their disks are also on the SAN. Several of them have started to show excessive disk load, notably our SQL server and our old file, print, & domain controller server. I am in the process of seperating our file/print server from our domain controller, but right now I get excessive disk load during the morning when people log on (we use roaming profiles). I think part of this is because the disks need to be defragged. I get different answers from everybody when I ask if I should defrag on the servers (windows 2003), or the SAN (xiotech), or both. I also get conflicting answers when I inquire whether I would get better throughput from newer fibre-channel cards (ours are PCI-x, PCI-e is significantly faster), or mixing in some local disks, or using multiple fibre channel cards.

I would like to know if anybody else has dealt with a similar situation or has some expertise in this area."

Submission + - Huge Residential Wifi Mapping Database Revealed

Submitted by

Talaria

on Tuesday March 20, 2007 @02:34PM

Talaria writes: "An enormous database of home wifi routers and their locations has been revealed after the Internet Patrol did some digging following AOL's recent announcement of their new "Near Me" service which allows AIM users to see which of their instant messenger buddies are geographically near them. The database, containing the unique IDs of more than 16million wireless routers and their locations, has been compiled by AOL partner Skyhook Wireless which claims to have mapped the majority of residences in both the U.S. and Canada."

Store Says DRM Causes 3 of 4 Support Calls 155

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday March 20, 2007 @02:07PM from the cost-shifting dept.

Carter writes "Ars Technica is reporting that Musicload, one of Europe's largest movie stores, has found that 75% of its customer support problems are caused by DRM. Users have frequent problems using the music that they have purchased, which has led Musicload to try selling independent label music without DRM. Artists choosing to abandon DRM in favor of good old-fashioned MP3 have seen 40% growth in sales since December. Good to see someone in the business both 'gets it' and is willing to do something about it."

Comment The Linux version costs ten times as much (Score 1) 1540

by gaelicwizard on Friday December 15, 2006 @04:05AM (#17251696) Attached to: Why Does Everyone Hate Microsoft?

All versions of Shake 4 were $4999 until just a few months ago when Apple made a *HUGE* price cut down to $499 for Mac. This is *very* recent. More than likely, they just didn't get to the formalities of the linux price cut, or don't see enough potential sales (or competition?) to justify it.

JP

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