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Chris Knight's avatar

So for the past several weeks my iTunes hasn’t been up to snuff. iTunes starts up okay… but when it comes to the iTunes Store it did nothing but show a blank white page with “iTunes Store” printed in the center. And whatever has been the problem with that, it also has kept iTunes from properly updating my iPad. I’m still using Windows Vista (no jokes, please :-P)

I tried everything but nothing worked to make iTunes Store functioning on my computer. I even uninstalled and re-installed iTunes… three times! And still the iTunes Store wouldn’t come up. When I ran the Diagnostics tool it gave me some crap about how iTunes Store couldn’t make a secure connection.

Well, as of about an hour ago it’s finally working again! It took me the better part of three days of actively addressing the issue and a whole wazooload of Google ...

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Whilst I await the arrival of my iPad 2 (estimated shipping 4-5 weeks, ahhh the price I paid for trying and failing to score one locally) here is something that will make one appreciate Apple’s biggest rival in a brand new light. For all the dissin’ that Microsoft gets, I have to respect them anew after watching this clip: Andrew Tait’s video “Chain of Fools”. In it, Andrew upgrades to Windows 7… but he starts with MS-DOS 5.0 running the original Microsoft Windows, and proceeds to upgrade from there to every subsequent version of Windows until he gets to the latest release!

So how successful was his endeavor? Watch and be amazed!

Anyone else nearly shed a tear when they saw Windows 3.1 again for the first time in years? 😛...

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Well, you do now! But be of good cheer: I’m about to tell you how to fix that.

I’ve had StarCraft II for awhile now, but haven’t played even anywhere close to finishing the first campaign. Among other reasons, I’ve been frustrated by what I have been certain is too slow performance for the high-end rig I’ve got it installed on. And yesterday, I finally set out to find out why (or if I was even right about that).

Turns out that StarCraft II doesn’t like multiple CPUs all that well. Optimally it should be running on two cores, not three or four. So Yours Truly went searching for a way to bring it down to operating on only two processors. Lo and behold: it can be done! Start up StarCraft II from the desktop, then bring up Task Manager (usually done through CTRL+ALT+Delete), go to the sc2.exe process and ...

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Can you imagine the “Mac vs. PC” ads that Apple is gonna think up for this one? But it’s true: Microsoft is releasing a “Steve Ballmer edition” of the Windows 7 operating system, emblazoned with the signature of Microsoft’s CEO. There’s a catch though: it’s only for those who host Windows 7 house parties (uhhh… a house party for the launch of an OS?). Also inside the Windows 7 party kit are: “balloons… Windows 7 tote bags… Windows 7 branded napkins, a puzzle pack, the pieces come together to form a wallpaper image from Windows 7… a pack of Windows 7 playing cards, a color poster” and of course the black box containing Windows 7 itself.

Okay, sounds nifty. But it would have been even more awesome if Microsoft also sweetened the deal by throwing in a Steve Ballmer-signed office chair....

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Two days ago I wrote how I was currently hooked on Fallout 3, Bethesday Softworks’ amazing continuation of the classic Fallout video games from the late Nineties.

Well since I wrote that, I had to take my copy of the game back to the Target store that I bought it from. Why? ‘Cuz my copy of the Windows version didn’t have the white sticker inside the box that had the Windows LIVE Access Key printed on it for that particular DVD. So I uninstalled Fallout 3, exchanged the original copy for one that did have the sticker with the key numeral, and installed the game fresh.

So everything was cool… except that the game “hung” shortly after the birth/character creation scene started, and would go no further.

Some reading on the Intertubes showed that a lot of people have been having this problem also.

Well, this morning I ...

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Would you trust Microsoft Windows to run a building’s elevator system (via a web browser)? Or to operate an Amtrak train? How about the computers regulating radiation therapy at a major hospital? No, I’m not totally dissing Windows but ya know: stuff like that really should have their own dedicated operating systems. Richard Stiennon at NetworkWorld.com has what he considers to be the top ten very worst uses of Windows. Chilling stuff… in a funny kind of way....

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Today is the final day of widespread sales of Windows XP. After today, it will no longer be possible to purchase a new computer from any major manufacturer with Windows XP installed on it.

The operating system first went on sale on October 25th, 2001. So it lasted with full support for nearly seven years: not bad for any software product but especially one from Microsoft, a company notorious for pushing updates on customers.

I was working at a Best Buy store when Windows XP was rolled out. Everyone associated with computers or media sales had to come in one Sunday morning prior to Windows XP’s release for three hours of what I have since come to call “Microsoft religious indoctrination”. We had to learn all about what Windows XP could do, what made it different from Windows Me and Windows 2000 Professional, all that jazz. I remember thinking ...

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Late last night I succeeded in finally putting every episode of Lost on my new iPod. And I didn’t buy them through iTunes and load ’em on the iPod either: instead I chose to rip them straight from my DVD sets.

This took a lot of work. And when I was starting it off with Season 3, I wound up encoding most of those episodes, then found a much better way to do it and so I started the whole process all over again. But in the end, they were all done (and I might buy the Season 4 episodes over iTunes to add them to my iPod’s inventory starting next month when Lost returns).

So how’d I do it, on a computer running Windows Vista? The first thing I did was use HandBrake, which is a free program for most platforms (Mac, Windows, Linux) that converts DVDs ...

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Last Tuesday, after I came back from Texas, I went to Greensboro to pick up my new computer at the store that I’d ordered it from. By the way if you’re in North Carolina and want quality computer products and outstanding service, I would definitely recommend Intrex. This is the second system that I’ve bought from them and I’ve never been anything less than overwhelmed at their confidence and dedication. They’ve got stores from Winston-Salem all the way to Greenville, with two in Greensboro and several in the Raleigh-Durham area.

Anyhoo, I got this new ‘puter as an investment in my new video production enterprise. That’s what I’ve spent a lot of this past week doing: installing software, tweaking hardware and otherwise fine-tuning it to be the instrument that I need to have.

So forgive me if I’m a babe in the woods when it comes to Windows Vista, ...

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