Installing Windows 9x/Me

I do not have a copy of Windows 9x/Me and I don't know anyone that has a copy of this ancient operating system, so obviously I won't be able to install a copy of it on my computer. Instead, I'm going to go through the installation steps in the book and detail how one would go about installing Windows 9x/Me and the choices that must be made along the way.

First, you must verify that the minimum and recommended hardware requirements are met. The software packages and programs also need to be checked for compatibility, which can be done via documentation or through the manufacturer's website.

You need to decide if you are installing Windows 9x/Me as a clean install or as an upgrade. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, but for this example I am going to describe an upgrade. An upgrade is much faster than a clean install and you won't have to reinstall all the hardware and software as you would have to with a clean install.

The two file systems you have to choose from are FAT16 and FAT32. FAT32 is the recommended file system to use, unless your PC will also be running Windows NT. FAT16 has the possibility of wasting too much space through "slack", which is when the file system doesn't use all of the available space at the end of clusters.

In the case of an upgrade, make sure that your computer is ready for the upgrade by checking your hard drive space, deleting unnecessary files, running scandisk, and running an antivirus program. It's also a good idea to create a rescue disk to have on hand in the event that the installation fails. Also be sure that your drive is not compressed, as Windows 9x/Me will not install on a compressed drive.

During the installation you will have four different setup options: typical, portable, compact, or custom. "Typical" is the usual choice, obviously from the name it's given, but "Portable" is good option if you are installing on a notebook. "Compact" is a good option if you don't want every component installed with Windows. You can always add wanted components at a later date through the Add/Remove Programs applet.

During setup, there are several possible errors that could occur. If an error message about BIOS appears during installation, this is most likely caused by BIOS not allowing changes to the boot sector to protect it from viruses and can be disabled in the CMOS setup. If Windows 9x/Me stalls during the first restart after installation, the probable cause of this is that legacy hardware is not configured correctly. This can be remedied by remarking out all the entries in Config.sys Autoexec.bat or by disabling the ISA enumerator by commenting out the "device=ISAPNP.386 line in System.ini. If during the first restart an error message pops up about a bad or missing file, try renaming the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files so that they aren't executed. You might also get an error message about a missing or damaged VxD file. Try running Windows setup again and select the option to verify or simply replace the file, which is a virtual device driver.

Table-based Design

In an earlier blog, I posted several examples of good typography. In this blog I am going to rexamine these sites see if they use table-based design or CSS-based design.

http://online.wsj.com/public/us is very rich in graphics, in text, and in design. Upon researching the source file, it becomes evident that this site uses CSS-based design.

http://www.technology-blog.com/blogs/computer-blog.html is much more basic, but still visual pleasing and well organized. I looked at the source file and this site uses table-base design.

This blog website uses CSS-based design as well.

With all the wonders and ease of CSS design, we have to ask ourselves why so many sites are still using tables. What I've noticed from the sites that I've looked at is that usually sites with multiple pages are the ones using CSS-based design. This would obviously be the least time consuming method for the web developers of these sites. A site with hundreds of pages, such as my first example, would take hours, if not days, to edit with tables. But a site like the computer blog I posted isn't as dependent upon CSS as these others because it is a single page. The web developer can design it with tables without have to copy all the design information to multiple pages. Some might think that there's no point to using CSS unless you are going to have multiple pages with the same design, but in my opinion it's good to use CSS anyways because you never know if you're going to want to eventually add more pages to your site. Why make more work for yourself in the future?

Responsibility

Ok, so I'm one of those people that likes to complain about Alaska from time to time. It's too cold, the extreme variations in daylight time is annoying, the people here are weird, we are too isolated from the rest of the country...the list goes on and on.. But sometimes I'm actually glad I live here and away from a lot of the crap that goes on "down south". I would love to live in a small town somewhere in Oklahoma (my finace's home state) or Virginia or Colorado, but there are so me places down here that I am happy to stay the hell away from. like San Fransisco.

First let me state that I am all for people having equal rights, equal liberties, yada-yada-yada; but I heard on the news the other day that a middle school teacher (or maybe it was Elementary school) took her class to a lesbian wedding that she was officiating. What kind of a sick individual who has the power to influence children in a positive or a negative way would do something like that? I'm sure not all the parents of these kids agree with the whole same-sex marriage thing, but obviously the teacher didn't stop to think that maybe not every parent wants their kid exposed to that crap. I'm sure some of the parents were happy, after all it is San Fransisco, but this teacher should lose her job and her license and not be allowed to teach children ever again. If she wants to promote lesbianism or cultural acceptance or whatever kind of agenda she has, she can teach a college class on lesbian wedding officiating.

Children are like sponges. I'm not a parent, but I know this through observation and through common sense that anyone over the age of sixteen should have. An adult is the end result of the child that was that sponge. This puts a huge responsibility on the parents to not expose their children to things that would have a negative affect on them. I'm not saying we should all shelter our children so they have no concept of the real world, I'm saying that if a child is going to attend a lesbian wedding and learn about that (screwed up) part of our culture it should most definitely be the parent that exposes them to this....because it is ultimately the parent's responisbility what their children will learn and how they learn it.

If you want your child to cuss, let them watch rated R movies; if you want your child to smoke, smoke in front of them. It that's simple. if you want your child to know about the American culture of today, you talk to them, teach them what is right and wrong. In the case of this teacher previously mentioned, I am more angry at the parents than I am at her. She is an idiot, that's a fact, but the parents should've been involved enough in their children's lives and schooling to know that she is an idiot and to know the kind of people that are teaching their children. It all comes down to responsibility, and the sole responsibility of a child rests on the parents

Coffee is a Drug

I'm sitting here in a coffee shop doing my homework, sipping a cooling 12 oz plastic cup of Americano with no cream and a shot of Irish Cream syrup and I'm wandering about the culture surge that coffee has enjoyed over the past decades. Much like other nature-drugs that have made their way into the US, such as cocaine or that "m" drug (I'm only calling it that because I don't know how to spell it, so I'll refer to it as "m"), it was discovered in some foreign land and used by native locals who greatly utilized its altering benefits. Cocaine came from what was the Coca plant in South America and was used by natives of the region who had to trek longs journeys over mountains. It gave them stamina, curbed their hunger, and rotted their teeth because they would chewe it and hold it in their mouths and suck the juices that way...much like the method of chewing tobacco. When the wonder plant was discovered by explorers and scientists, cocaine was eventually discovered and extracted from it through a chemistry process. Cocaine is really only a small percentage of the actual Coca plant. Leave it to modern science to take something completely natural and create an addictive life, body, and mind destroyer from it. Cocaine was acclaimed as a miracle drug and was used by doctors world wide and some eccentric famous people. Edgar Allan Poe was one of them, which explains a lot. It was even used in soft drinks. Hence the name: Coca-Cola. My point is, and not that I always have a point or if there's even a point to this-I'm just emptying the overflowing container of ideas in my head that the introduction of coffee to my system accentuates, why is coffee not considered a drug? It has mind and body-altering effects. It is addictive. If you think it's not addictive, then drink a large coffee every morning for a few months and then take a few mornings off. Crankiness, headaches, and even body aches will consume you. But it's not a dangerous drug like cocaine or any of the other ones out there, but it's also in a very natural form. No chemistry has been done to it to extract a "miracle drug". It's just a bean. It's much like the original Coca plant in that it energizes and motivates great feats...minus the whole teeth rot issue of course. It's also a multi-million, or even billion, dollar industry. And if it was ever made illegal there would be a lot of angry yuppies. Pretty much everyone would be angry for that matter. Millions of people would wake up with raging headaches and bad attitudes and would have to skip work for the day. The result of this would be banks closing for the day, schools closing for the day, workplaces everywhere would have to close for the day because no one would show up due to the mass occurrence of coffee withdrawals. The economy would collapse. And we just can't have that happening. Anyways, I'm going to finish my coffee and do some more homework.

CSS and XHTML Examples

The website www.cigarsaroundtheworld.com is a good example of XHTML. It does not use CSS; all the fonts and styles are listed in the source file, and it seems to rely heavily on tables. Much kudos to Bill for winning The Apprentice and having a nice site, but he obviously hasn't taken this class nor knows the work-time that CSS saves.

The website http://cigarblog.net is an example of a simple site that relies on CSS. The source file has class and id selectors and links to "style.css". I'm sure it's not as extensive of a site as the previous mentioned one, but even if it was, the web developers would have a much easier time creating, maintaining, and adding to it since it is designed using CSS.

Using Batch Files

Here's the steps I would take to help Dennis with what he needed to do. I actually performed these steps on my own computer to see how they would work.

1. I don't have Word on my computer, so I instead created a Works document file entitled MyList. Here's the path to it: C:\Documents and Settings\ShAnNi\Desktop\MyList.wps.

2. I created a folder named C:\data.

3. I created a batch file by typing "COPY C:\Documents and Settings\ShAnNi\Desktop\MyList.wps C:\data\MyList.wps" in Notepad and saving it to the Desktop as MyBatch.bat.

4. The path to the batch file is "COPY C:\Documents and Settings\ShAnNi\Desktop\MyBatch.bat".

On Typography

Here are a couple examples I found on the internet that give good examples of typography:

http://online.wsj.com/public/us

http://www.technology-blog.com/blogs/computer-blog.html

The Wall street Journal site is obviously much more complicated, but makes very good use of text wrapping, headlines, font size, color differences, and bold lettering. The page setup is also very appealing. The three column format gives it a newspaper feel even though it is on the internet.

The technology blog I linked to is much more simple, but still utilizing text wrapping and differences in boldness and color to make it smooth. It is however fairly repetitive and doesn't offer much in the way of variety.

Wedding Plans & Cooking on Saturdays

Currently I'm working full time, going to school part time, and preparing to get married in two months. Sometimes it feels like there's not enough hours in the day to do everything I need to and maybe add in a few things I want to. I occasionally joke to my fiancé that once we're married we'll actually be able to get a good night's sleep. I'm amazed at how much is involved with planning a wedding. There's the church, the officiator, the reception, the church decorations, the reception decorations, the dance floor, the flowers, the wedding dress, the wedding party's dresses and tuxes, my tux, the rings, the wedding license, the honeymoon plans, the food for the reception, the guest list, the invitation, the pictures for the invitations, the gift registering... the list seems to go on and on. I think if I ever had to plan a wedding I'd pull my hair out! Thankfully her and her mom are planning everything and I don't have to think too much about most of this. I just help out where I'm needed and give my opinion when asked...isn't that the purpose of the man anyways? It's all coming together nicely and ahead of schedule, as her and her mom are both really organized and not into procrastinating.

I've never worked fulltime while taking classes, but I'm doing surprisingly well. Well, for one, I'm only taking two classes, but still there are times when I feel short on time. I don't have internet access at home, and while most assignments I can write down and complete at home, when I do need the internet I have to find time to bring my laptop to the library. This isn't so bad, but right now I'm working at 11:00 AM on weekdays and the library doesn't open until 10:00 AM. So this gives me an hour to work on internet work, which is sometimes enough time and sometimes not enough time. I could go by the library after work too, but I’m usually in a rush to get home and see my finance. Thankfully, I don't work on Saturdays so I can use most of that day to finish up the week's assignments.

I also cook for my finance Saturday nights usually. It's kind of a tradition of ours right now. She cooks for me on Mondays, which is one of her days off, and I cook for her on Saturdays. Other days we usually eat leftovers. Her meals are always so much better than mine, but I can cook some pretty yummy stuff none-the-less. I usually do schoolwork for half of the day on Saturday and then switch gears to planning out our meal for that night. And then I also have to make time for doing any laundry that needs to be done and vacuuming or cleaning, since Saturday is usually my cleaning day.

I found a recipe for Black Bean & Pumpkin Soup I'm going to try making tonight. I've never made it, but the recipe sounds good so we'll see. It'll definitely be high in fiber, not sure why that matters. We both love pumpkin and it's getting to be that time of years when pumpkin pies and pumpkin rolls and similar things like yams and sweet potatoes fill the air of homes with delicious aromas that distract us from the bitter cold that lurks outside our doors and windows, waiting for a chance to chill us to the bone. Maybe I'll pick up some wine to go with it. Red or white? It's a good day when that's the biggest decision I have to make. When I don't have to fret over choosing between who will run this country; a man with good ideas that never tells them, or a man with naive' ideas that won't stop telling them. But that's another subject entirely. I'll let you decide which man is which.

More Ways to Fix a Sluggish Windows XP Startup

1) Boot into Safe Mode by pressing F8 at startup and selecting "Safe Mode". Run and anti-viral program to check for viruses that might be bogging the computer down. I remember on my parent's old computer we got what is called a "worm" virus. It completely ate of the hard drive space and made the computer extremely sluggish. It's easy to mistake a virus for a hardware or software program, so checking for viruses should be one the first things done.

2) In Safe Mode, use the Add or Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel to remove any unwanted Programs. If might have to end a process in the Task Manager before uninstalling the software associated with it, but starting in Safe Mode should already prevent anything but the necessities from loading.

3) Check for unwanted tasks through C:\Windows\Tasks folder. This folder lists all of the scheduled tasks that are set to run at startup. Some software have automatic updates that run every time you startup the computer. An antivirus program is a good example of this.

4) Check startup folders for services that you don't want to load when your OS boots. This has been one of my main issues whenever my computer has had a sluggish startup. If Windows has to load ten services along with everything else it needs to load, this can greatly slow the computer down.

5) Check for too many installed fonts in the C:\Windows\Fonts folder. All fonts are loaded at startup, so it's a good idea to not have any fonts installed that you don't even use.

6) Another way to check for unwanted or unneeded startup services is through the Services console. Some services can be temporarily disable if you are unsure if it is necessary or not. This is a good option if you are unsure. It's best not to risk deleted a service that your system needs.

7) Using the Recovery Console, which is accessed the Windows XP setup CD, the master boot program can be repaired.

8) Using the Recover Console, system files can be restored. Notes should be taken from error messages an research on these messages so that you know which files need to be restored.

9) Run Chkdsk to see if RAM is defective. If this is the case, the RAM might need to be replaced or upgraded.

10) If none of these options work, you might have to completely reinstall Windows XP or utilize the System Recovery CD that came with your OS. Be sure to backup your files first!

Real Problem 4-1, Another Corrupted Installation

I'm not sure if this is an error in the textbook, or if the instructor even knows about it, but this problem is exactly identical to Real Problem 2-1 on page 106. If this was purposefully done and I am supposed to talk more about corrupted Windows installations, then I would have to point out that there is nothing in chapter five about installing Windows or dealing with a corrupted OS.

What I can talk about, however, is actions that should've been taken long before the problem even arose. This chapter does talk about backing up data and planning for disaster recovery. I would of backed up all of Jason's files and information as well as his system information in anticipation of an OS corruption, crashed hard drive, or any other computer emergency. Since it's not good to back up data on only one form of media, I would backup on CD's and also on an external hard drive. Back-ups can either be done manually or automatically on scheduled periods via the Backup Utility.

With all of Jason's data backed up, I can work on his corrupted system or his hard drive without fear of anything being lost. To ensure the least possible "tragedy", data should be backed up frequently, more frequently depending on the importance of the data.

Careers in Web Development

As I've probably mentioned before, I'm in this degree program to pursue a career in the IT field. Today I've been doing a little research in the field of Web Development and what my options would be. It looks like I could either work for a company, start my own company, or be a freelancer. Working for a company would probably be my best bet, especially since I'll be coming right out of college and barely wet behind the ears in the field. This would be a good chance to gain some experience and see how the business works before embarking on my own entrepreneurial ventures.

Contract work is another option. This is what my brother is currently doing for Anchorage Daily News. He did have a full time job for them, but when he and his wife recently moved to Washington, they offered to have him stay on the payroll through contract work. They're paying him $1,000 a week to work on their web sites. Not too bad, if you ask me.

As soon as I complete this degree, I'll be looking for a steady job in the IT field, preferably with a creative emphasis, and then from there I'll hone my skills and learn the business and start thinking about the possibility of my own business.

Here's another interesting thing I found. There are three styles of web developer: content developer, designer/graphic artist, and coder/programmer. To ensure the best opportunities, it would probably be best to become proficient in all three.