So everyone’s been talking about the hype of Windows 7 ever since the beta release dropped this past year. And then people really went crazy when Microsoft released it for real. And then university students discovered you could get Windows 7 for very cheap or even free! (Cockrell School of Engineering students, check out this link).

This is how my install went… If you just want the screenshots, scroll to the bottom :)

I decided I’d go ahead with a reformat and install Windows 7. My Sony Vaio 645P came installed with Windows XP, so I held off installing until I was totally sure I wanted Windows 7. It’s running 2 Ghz Intel processor, 2 Gb RAM, 160 Gb hard disk space. I’m really into customization of my desktop, and XP was much better for that than Vista. Upon running the install, I discovered that the installer actually saves my old “Program Files” and “Documents and Settings” folders. This is pretty nifty for saving all the music, pictures, fonts, program configurations, etc. I backed those up on an external anyway. Total install time took about 30 minutes.

First thing people will tell you about Windows 7 is that it boots up very fast. I’m used to the three minute wait on XP, but I could definitely get used to booting up in about 45 seconds. The aero theme is one of my favorites, and I always tried to emulate it with WindowBlinds on XP. The user interface is pretty much the same, just a lot prettier. But dig deeper and you’ll realize that Windows 7 has a lot of improvements in how it runs files too.

I had to pause the honeymoon for a moment because I had to install my drivers. Most people will find that Windows 7 does a very good job of discovering what drivers are needed and automatically searches the Internet for them. Sony Vaio drivers, however… You’ll need nerves, patience, tenacity, and determination. But hey, that’s the whole reason you got a Vaio, right? With my Vaio, I have a wireless switch, a Memory Stick reader, video card switch, Fn keys, and two macro buttons. Time to hit up the Vaio support site and get those drivers. Well, first things first, I had to install the latest nVidia driver for my GeForce 8400M GS. Latest one, check. Restart, Windows doesn’t detect it correctly so Aero is still disabled. Wtf? I search Google for a fix, I find out I have to install a modified nVidia driver. So, download, unzip, install, repeat. I finally find one that works. Aero graphics activated. Suite. In the process I had also downloaded and installed a utility driver update from the Vaio support page that makes all my hardware stuff work. I restart, everything is gravy. Until I check my wireless and it’s disabled. What… the fuck. No matter what I do, I can’t re-enable it. I download a ton more drivers, uninstall some random crap but I just don’t know what to do. Well, I do, there’s only one choice left. Full format of the drive. At this point I could care less about all those fonts I didn’t back up or the config files for some programs. I have all my music and pictures backed up, who gives a shit. Five o’ clock in the morning, I’m getting hella tired. Move my wires and stuff to the nightstand, put in Windows 7 disk and reformat the entire drive. Sleep.

Wake up. Okay Windows 7 is back and so is the wifi. Drivers are all gone, so let’s go again. At this point, I didn’t realize it was the utilities driver messing it all up. Vaio has a program that works with the wireless switch to enable 2 Ghz, 5 Ghz, and Bluetooth functionality. I think it got set to 5 Ghz somewhere along the way and I got owned. So I install utilities again and my wireless works fine. Oh well. Pop up. Battery is detected as not correctly inserted? Wtf. It’s in there good. One of the utilities is the battery light. Uhhh this pop up won’t go away. Choices are “Restart” or “Restart.” I try to hide it to try and find a fix but it just re-focuses itself every 15 seconds. Okay! Shut down, check battery connection, everything is fine. Boot up, battery problem again. Oh carp.

Where’s that Windows 7 disk… Full reformat, again. This time not installing utilities driver. So now my battery light doesn’t light up, bluetooth is always on and my S1 S2 buttons don’t work. Not like I used them or anything. Now, I get that video driver installed and aero enabled.

So right now I’m itching for some Team Fortress 2. Haven’t played in like… two days. I have all the files backed up on a drive, get it installed. Run. Everything boots up perfect, until I spawn and I get a ton of lag. I’ll save you the bloody details but I was just being a dumbass and not disabling Aero graphics. I get all the essentials installed: Photoshop, Winamp, Chrome, Office, Digsby, and uTorrent. At this point I’m itching for some customization. Windows 7 does has a really cool feature that allows it to change the background every now and then. For someone who changes their background way too often, this is perfect for me. I look online for some visual styles. I install a bunch.

Then I discover all those themes just look like crap and the only theme that has everything I want is the original Windows theme. It takes me a whole week of tweaking and configuring to discover that.

Now that you got past the tl;dr part, here are some screenshots for your viewing pleasure!

Son Dambi

Just really useful

Aero Peek allows you to hover and thumbnail that window. It’s so simple yet so entertaining. Photoshop is minimized in the last picture, but if I hover the Photoshop button on the taskbar, it will show Photoshop’s original position and hide the other windows:

I also discovered a way to make the taskbar even smaller than when having the option “Use small icons” is checked. It looks a lot like the old taskbar from Windows XP. I was fiddling around in the appearance window, and I found that “Caption Buttons” not only controls the size of the Minimize, Maximize and Close buttons on a window but the size of the taskbar also. So to make your taskbar even smaller: right click your desktop > Personalize > Window Color > Advance appearance settings… Then change the “Caption Buttons” size accordingly. 17 pixels is the smallest it will go, any smaller won’t make the taskbar smaller, just the action buttons on your windows. Only downside is that your system tray icons are really tiny.

Left: small taskbar. Right: original taskbar

While all this was happening, I found Nujabes’s new compilation album, “Mellow Beats, Friends & Lovers.” At first, I thought it sucked. And then I listened to it again. And I found this song. Reformatting and installing Windows isn’t so bad when this song is stuck in your head. Granted, there are a bunch of good songs, and there’s something for every kind of Nujabes fan. Great driving music.

No.9 – After It
http://limelinx.com/files/d87f211d54ffe62f8daf25004815d2bd

Fuck. I was going through deleting spam I got super fast and I accidentally deleted two comments on the last post. Sorry about that Jeddy and Stern. Hope you guys will still want to be my friend :(

My camera ran out of battery from just sitting there for months. The one with commentary is from Henry’s camera, the last two were from mine when I got just enough battery to shoot a couple minutes of footage. Enjoy!

It’s gotten a little chilly here in Austin. It feels great, I can finally rock sweaters and scarves.

When a person is mad at someone else, and you know they’re mad, and even if you ask if they’re mad, they still say no. It definitely kills me inside. It’s stupid for me to ask, but I’m just dying on the inside even though I know what you’re gonna say. Maybe I just care too much. Maybe I’m just being a pussy again.

Not sure what else I want to talk about. Lots of comments on that last post, many thanks to those who commented.

I can’t wait for Thanksgiving break. Those of you in Houston, let’s do something! My Thanksgiving break isn’t too long, but I definitely want some hot pot. Well, I mean, most of all I want to see my family. My parents miss me dearly and I rarely stay home on the weekends I am in town. And if you’re wondering, yes, my mom reads this blog. She can’t understand much of it, so she bothers me about my blog posts every time I go back home.

I’ve got a calculus and physics test on the same week after I return from Thanksgiving break. Which is absolutely insane because I think I need an A on this test to even pass the class. This weekend was Longhorn Saturday, and I got asked to be a part of the student panel. Prospective students come from all over and visit UT, and one of the parts is a question and answer session for current students. It was really interesting to see that there were two or three people in the audience who were thinking of doing aerospace engineering. I was the only Asian on the panel, and I happened to be in engineering. Haha stereotypical, no? The audience asked a bunch of good questions, but this one person asked “About how many hours a week do you spend studying?” It’s a good question to ask, but not a good one to answer. So if you’re a prospective student, this is a no-holds-barred, not-endorsed-by-the-university answer: Little to none. We came up with the answer, “You study for the grade you want in the class,” which is a good answer because if you want an A you can work your ass off for it. Personally, I just cram my tests, so on an average week (like this one) I do little to no studying. But on weeks where I have one test (or like next next week where I have two), I’ll probably spend 20+ hours that week studying. If you were challenged in high school, and I mean really challenged, like AP and IB level type stuff, you’ll be fine in college. During the session, the words “typical UT student” was thrown around a couple times. My friend Archana later said, “No one’s college experience is the same as someone else’s, there is no typical student.” And that’s definitely how I’d describe my experience.

I stocked up on some food, I never realized how much I love Poptarts. Especially the ones where it’s 3 boxes for $5. I also got the Complete Sherlock Holmes on hardback… it’s been keeping me company lately. I love curling up in my blanket on a cold day and reading. No, I’m not sick or drunk, I just really like Sherlock Holmes!

Enjoy the song, those of you who have seen “Take The Lead” will recognize it. Till next time.

What the fuck am I doing here in Austin? Sometimes when I’m walking I think to myself, “Wow, I’m in college.” It’s not the crazy idea that I’m in college, but it’s just the fact that this is the beginning of the rest of my life. It’s hard to believe ten years ago, I was all about Pokemon cards, watching cartoons, and learning about this thing called the “Internet.” First video game I ever played was “Petz.” And if you’ve ever heard of or played this game, it was the best game ever. I look at my Facebook network and it says “Texas ‘12.” It’s like “Damn, I’m here, arent I?”

Ten years later, I’m still into Pokemon (just not as much), I still love cartoons, and I’m learning new things about the internet all the time. Does anyone watch Megas XLR? Is it not the funniest cartoon ever? Typical college application question: Where do you see yourself in ten years? I definitely would not imagine myself as I am today ten years ago. All I knew back then was that college was somewhere I needed to go. In ten years I’ll be 28. Out of school. I’d like to work for some cool hi-tech airplane company like Boeing or Lockheed-Martin, but deep down inside, I really wanna work for a major auto manufacturer like Honda or Nissan. Of course, I’d like to be well off, big ass house, fast cars, wear clothes from The Gap. And I’ll be married. And kids on the way. Crazy, right? That probably means I won’t be living in Houston. But Houston is where my heart is at. If you can find a city with a tapioca place 5 minutes away from a Cheddar’s, tell me.

It’s funny that I contemplate life way too much. Maybe I’m searching for a greater meaning. It’s my own way of philosophizing, considering I skip philosophy lectures, and when I do attend, I play solitaire.

Or maybe I’m just thinking about it way too fucking hard. I mean, I haven’t even planned out what I’m doing this week yet. Actually, I have, I’m doing a freshmen panel for prospective students this Saturday for the university. Should be lots of fun, I’ll try and get some photos. It’s going to be early Saturday morning, so I won’t be able to go back to Houston. My mom wants me to go back home so we can get new cell phones. For about 45 minutes today, I did all the research I could on how to make an iPhone work with a T-Mobile SIM card. Then I found out that iPhones on eBay are over $400. So… Google G1? I’m not exactly big ballin’ (yet), mainly because I go blasting money at the Galleria everytime I visit Houston, but I’d rather have an iPhone than a Google G1 for the single fact that the iPhone looks way better. I can’t be lugging around a brick like the G1, I learned my lesson with my former Zune.

Just random thoughts. Keepin’ those interested updated. Thanks for the comments y’all have given me, they’re much appreciated and motivate me to blog. Not that I blog often, anyway.

First off, happy birthday to my little brother Franklin. He turns 17 today. Hope you have a good one, dinner at Cafe 101 with your friends as usual, no doubt? Haha

I ate out alone for the first time today. I don’t think I’ve ever done that. I’ve always thought of it as an anti-social thing. If I didn’t have anyone to eat with, I’d just take it to go. Today, however, I was feeling adventurous. I got out early from my programming class so I trekked over to the Burger King on the northwest side of campus.

The guy behind the register asks, “For here or to go?” I reply, “For here.” I get the tray and I sit at one of the tables. The restaurant is empty. I put my bag down and I spot a Daily Texan someone left. I reach over and open it up. It was probably the best lunch I’ve had in a long time. Maybe it’s because I haven’t had Burger King in one or two months, and it’s my favorite fast food place. They need to build one close to south campus. It was really pensive, just quietly studying the newspaper while I had my two burgers (I was hungry). I think I’ll do that more often when I get a chance. Eating by oneself isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

In much more important news, rank 1 Texas takes on Missouri tomorrow. Hook ‘em. There’s all this balderdash about how there have been four other number 1’s this year and how they were all upset. Well, Texas isn’t like those other weaklings. Especially that USC losing to who was it again? I can’t even remember which team it was they were so obscure. ESPN Game Day has been setting up on the front lawn of the tower for the past three days, that will be exciting to see on the telly tomorrow.

I read somewhere an important fact about self image. The way you see yourself may be different from the way others see you. That makes me think a lot. My friend recently told me I care too much what others think. Upon soul searching, she’s right. All it did was take a couple drinks for me to realize. We’re all social creatures, no? How we appear to others impacts our interactions with others. I like to meet people who are open and friendly on first impression, but I find myself doing the exactly opposite when I meet people sometimes. I’m so hypocritical sometimes, I say I hate these qualities, but I end up showing them occassionally. What was the point of this meaningless string of thoughts? I just want the reader to look deep inside. What do people truly think of you? Is that different from how you feel? I ask myself that sometimes during calculus. Which explains my abysmal score on the last test.