Windows 7, Windows 7, Windows 7

Now that Windows Vista is a mature product I believe the compulsory education sector needs to get up to speed on the process of upgrading to it, as Windows XP support is soon to be phased out by Microsoft. Windows 7 is due to be released in about three months’ time, and I’ve taken the opportunity to test it out by installing it into a Hyper-V virtual machine on our Windows 2008 server. I hope that it will be released to schools as part of the next MOE deal in 2009, but I will be seeking a new computer to run it on because this desktop has only an E2140 CPU that doesn’t support Intel VT and thus won’t run the XP Virtual mode. Our Windows 2008x64 Server has plenty of memory and a Xeon quad core CPU so it will not be overtaxed by running 7 as a virtual machine at all.

The installation of Windows 7 Release Candidate on Hyper-V was straightforward once networking issues were sorted out. Hyper-V by default installs a virtual network, which must be properly configured in order to give VMs proper network access. Specifically, any virtual network adapter that you set up in the Hyper-V Virtual Network Manager must be specifically configured to give access to the external network and then each VM must be hooked onto the correct VNA. I got fooled by the fact that the VNA has the same name as the physical adapter in the machine and wrongly assumed that this VNA would automatically connect to the external network when it was set up by default for private connection only. Apart from that issue, which stopped all the VMs of different OSs that I tried from connecting to the network, installing W7RC was extremely straightforward from a blank VM.

Now that we have it running I guess we will play with it a bit. I prototyped Vista in our school by running it on my own desktop for the last year and I will be an early adopter of 7 once it becomes widely available. In the meantime we are considering options for transitioning our users to Vista, much as we moved everything to XP a few years ago. This time around, though, there seems to be a marked level of resistance in the sector to Vista, which may to some extent be a reflection of the wider community’s attitude. There is not such resistance in tertiary institutions where Vista is being taught, and I would expect them to be on the forefront of adopting 7 when it is released. However, Microsoft has cautioned against organisations trying to bypass Vista and it makes no sense to jump straight from XP to 7 until the latter is well matured.

Picasa 3, Take 2

Last year, Google updated the Picasa software to version 3. At the time, I tried it, but was very unhappy with a few things. Principally, these were the forced automated update from 2.7 (it downloads the update without asking you and then installs it behind your back), and the way it interfered with my scanner and camera settings. The issue with the update is that comparable programs like Firefox will never update you to a new major version, and they do so much more transparently. It is almost impossible to stop the update from 2.7 without being underhand because as soon as you start it up for the very first time, and before you get a chance to change the settings not to check automatically for updates, it starts out downloading 3.x right away and automatically installs it the next time at startup. And if you do manage to stop it from updating, then it keeps hassling you every few days to download the update anyway.

At the time I found Picasa had taken over from Canon CameraWindow as the default application when I connected a camera to download pictures. This issue has been addressed in the newest version that I installed, 3.1.0. Picasa also doesn’t interfere with scanner settings – the Epson’s front panel button still launched the Epson Scan software without any quibbles.

One of the most useful features of Picasa 3 is the automated web album sync which removes the need to manually upload new or changed files. I expect to give this a good test out over the next few weeks as I update all of my existing pictures in lepidopterophile’s albums with tags. Being able to add the latter to pictures is another new feature, though the interface provided could use some design improvements. It was pleasing to see that this feature is implemented through existing IPTC tags. Last I heard, Google was having some trouble implementing these, so it’s good to see they have been able to make them work, because it means that when the occasion suits you can use another IPTC client (I use Irfanview). Another nice feature is being able to make a video from a set of pictures. I got the exploding camera into a video and uploaded it to Youtube.

Now I have decided to stick with Picasa 3, Google will have to work hard to overcome my previous negative viewpoint of it. So far, it’s looking promising.

Camera Totals

• Canon Powershot S1 IS: 9496 images, 47 months (202/mth). May 2005 – April 2009, display circuitry failed.
• Canon Powershot A400: 5960 images, 21 months (283/mth). June 2005 – March 2007, sold.
• Canon Powershot A450: 3265 images, 10 months (326/mth). March 2007 – January 2008, dust entered lens.
• Canon Powershot A460: 4512 images, 16 months (282/mth). January 2008 – present.
• Canon Powershot S5 IS: 1924 images, approx 9 months (TBD) (~213/mth). About August 2008 – present.
• Total 25,157 images (524/mth).

Since June 2005 I have always owned two cameras, except for the last 9 months or so when I owned three. Now, I’m back to two, but I also still own the A450 although it’s next to useless, and will probably buy an A2000 next month. Not sure what I’ll do with the A460 then.