WINDOWS

I migrated my computer over to the Beta release of Windows 7 before the new year. Every time I re/install an OS on my machine, I back up a few folders stored in the AppData folder containing Pidgin's chatlogs, Thunderbird's e-mails, and Firefox's browser preferences.

Dropbox is a relatively new automated file synchronization service that gives users 2GB of free online storage to synchronize documents to. Using a desktop app (available for Windows, Mac, or Linux), you can specify a single folder as your "dropbox", the contents of which are automatically synchronized to your storage space online. Your Dropbox account can then be linked to any number of other machines, and those machines in turn will download and make available all of the documents that have been synchronized to your account.

What does Dropbox have to do with backing up the three folders I mentioned earlier? Well, through the magic of a few NTFS Symbolic Links, I've managed to move folders that are otherwise in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming and place them in the folder I've designated as my dropbox in my Documents folder; as a result, I can keep all of my chatlogs, e-mails, and browser preferences automatically synchronized online and accessible from anywhere I have internet access, and I can easily restore all of those files the next time I install an OS.

To accomplish this, I used Vista's mklink command:

mklink [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] link target

• /D – Creates a directory symbolic link. Default is a file symbolic link.
• /H – Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
• /J – Creates a Directory Junction.

You can read more about the /D and /H flags with a bit of googling, but for now we'll focus on the /J flag. When set, the /J flag tells the OS to point any requests to the link directory to the target directory. Here's an example:

mklink /J "C:\Users\AppData\Roaming\.purple" "D:\My Dropbox\Pidgin"

First, we initiate the link program with mklink with the /J active. Next, we give the program the folder path that we want to link to another folder somewhere else in the computer. We're telling it to point (a hypothetical) Pidgin's settings and chatlogs folder to another location. That location is specified in the last folder path. In this case, I'm pointing it to the Pidgin folder stored within the Dropbox synchronization directory.

Before you hit enter, make sure the link folder is completely empty of any file or folder. When everything's set, hit enter and you'll have made a directory junction between the two folders.

It's worth taking a moment to explain how the OS handles the junction. First, if you go to C:\Users\AppData\Roaming\.purple, though it appears as though files are in the folder, what you're really seeing are the files stored in D:\My Dropbox\Pidgin. To Pidgin, it appears as though all the files it needs to run are in their proper location, but in reality it's accessing and modifying files in the Pidgin dropbox folder.

How does all of this fit in with Drobox? Each of the three Directory Junctions I created points to a target folder in the My Dropbox folder. Whenever Pidgin, Thunderbird, or Firefox makes a change to any of their files, Dropbox see the changes and synchronizes the files to my Dropbox storage space online. With just a few short minutes in the command line, I was able to automate the archival of some of the most important files on my computer and set up an easy means of accessing them should something ever happen to my machine.

I hope this tutorial helps out someone in a similar bind as me. If you find a better way of automating file backups to an online location (maybe even a personal FTP server!), let me know; I'm always looking for new ways to automate archiving of important files!

I was rummaging through some old Lifehacker posts when I came across a little gem called Vista Drive Icon.

What does Vista Drive Icon do?

Click for larger

It implement's Vista's Hard Drive capacity meter in Windows XP! This was one of the few features about Vista I liked; the lack of that feature made the move back to XP a bit more difficult, since now I had to right-click on a drive and click Properties to see how much capacity was available.

And the best part? It's freeware! If you're worried about memory usage, don't be; on my system it only used ~4.5MB of RAM, a measly amount in today's era of 1+GB of system RAM.

Microsoft is the standard for things when it comes to things like operating systems or office productivity suites, so I took it upon myself to get a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate.

Now, normally this software runs anywhere from mid-$600's to the low-$400's, but Microsoft decided to be generous (most likely for some penetration into the college-age market) and offer it up for the low, low price of $60. The software is offered up to students as part of their "The Ultimate Steal" program and requires that you have a valid school e-mail address.

I've been a proponent of OpenOffice.org because it's a free Office-compatible suite of programs; before I used it I relied on pirated copies of Office 2003 for my word processing and spreadsheet needs. I figured this offer was as good a time as any to get my own legitimate copy of Office, so I caved and bought a license. Now I don't have to worry about anyone knocking on my door and hauling my ass to court!

I should mention that for most people, OpenOffice is more than enough, and the price can't be beat. One of the main reasons I decided to buy Office 2007 was because it comes with Outlook; nothing in the OO line of software offers a program I can synchronize my Pocket PC to, so I was dependent on my copy of Outlook 2003 to keep my device and computer synchronized.

$60 isn't a bad price for over $400 worth of software, but a heads-up, if you want a physical copy of the program on a DVD it'll cost you an additional $20; I went ahead and added on to my order because I like having hard copies of the good software!

In other news, my right knee experiences sharp pangs whenever I bike; this is bad news, especially since I'm supposed to be preparing for a 40-mile up-hill bike ride on the weekend of Thanksgiving! I'm going to the health clinic tomorrow to have someone take a look at it, and with any luck it'll be something that can be fixed without much downtime. Here's hoping!

I found an interesting article through Digg today that I decided to include here should I ever come across a similar problem.

First off, here's the article. In summation, the problem lies with the seven DLL files that downloaded in a silent and undocumented Windows XP update two weeks ago. These DLL's sabotage update functionality after a user "Repair"s their up-to-date install of XP (using an authentic XP CD).

What happens is that those 7 DLL files are not registered with Windows; any attempts to install the 80 most recent Windows XP updates will result in failure with a cryptic, "A problem on your computer is preventing the updates from being downloaded or installed". The solution, thankfully, is quite easy:

Quoted from Windows Secrets:



That's it! I've not been able to test whether that works or not, but according to the article it will indeed fix any Windows Update-related problems that may crop up.

I like to keep a tight ship with my computers, if only to maximize the amount of time between reinstalls of Windows. Performance on both my tower and my laptop is smooth because I've had quite a bit of time to figure out an exact list of programs I need to install, thus keeping away from any "bloatware".

Being as tech savvy as I am, I like to dabble in new programs that occasionally cross my path, if only to note their merits for future use. I don't mind downloading and installing the program because I know there's something new for me to play with and hey, who doesn't like playing around with free software?

When all the fun to be had has been had, though, THAT'S when I get pissed off. Why would I get angry? Didn't I just sate a bit of curiousity? Sure I did, but after all the fun's done, I have to put up with the bullshit that is FINDING A WAY TO GET THE PROGRAM OFF MY COMPUTER. MOST programs (I'd venture to say 99%) include an entry under All Programs on the Start menu that include links to documentation, the actual program itself, AND THE UNINSTALLER! I don't have a problem with most programs because when the time comes for me to uninstall an application off my machine, I can just look for the program's entry in All Programs and click on the uninstaller. Short, quick, and above all else, INTUITIVE.

"Oh but what about the Add/Remove Programs dialogue?" First off, before I go any further, Microsoft, what's the deal? "Add/Remove"? When was the last time I ADDED a program using that control? Is it even possible? No, its not, thank god you changed it in Vista. How useful is it for removing programs? Its useful alright, if I enjoy WAITING for my computer to compile a list of programs I can uninstall EVERY TIME I RUN IT. How about you have the control generate some kind of flat file that contains all the uninstallers currently on the computer? If you're going to check for EVERY uninstaller on the machine, do you think Windows could stream uninstallers as Windows finds them? That might be a bit quicker. Hell, Spybot compiles a list of programs with uninstallers faster than Add/Remove Programs does. Go figure.

Wow, look how quick this turned into a hate-rant about Windows. I love Windows, though, so let me clarify that my anger is directed to all the application developers who find it best, in their INFINITE WISDOM, to NOT include an uninstaller in their All Programs entry. If you're one of those developers, please, PLEASE, go to Hell and don't come back until you figure out the best interests of the CUSTOMER and not yourself.

Linux enthusiasts abounded at the news of Windows Vista, because pure speculation tells us that they were pleased to see that all of Window Vista's new features were all possible on their beloved linux distributions. Fancy new search? Beagle has that taken care of. Snazzy new UI and special effects? The Beryl Project has you covered (video of Beryl in action here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZD7QraljRfM). And the "best part" about all of this is, ITS ALL FREE!

In the case of Linux, the old adage "you get what you pay for" is the order of the day.

Its been seven months since my last foray into Linux, and yesterday I found myself sacrificing my laptop to test out Kubuntu 7.04, code-named "Feisty Fawn". For those of you who don't know, Kubuntu is the same OS as Ubuntu, except it uses an alternate desktop environment, KDE (instead of Gnome). Part of my motivation to test out Kubuntu originated from many articles I'd read on Digg.com about how easy Ubuntu is to upgrade to, how much better laptop-hardware support has become, and how nice Ubuntu looks after installing and configuring Beryl/Compiz. With Windows Vista's recent price tag set at around $400 (plus or minus $20), I figured, what the hell, why not see if my less-powerful laptop (compared to my tower) can survive on a steady diet of Linux; if Kubuntu received my seal of approval, then I could save myself $200 (OEM is SO much cheaper than Retail!).

Lets start off with installation. Getting Kubuntu onto my laptop was, for the most part, hassle-free. I hit a couple snags installing from a 6.06 Live CD, but the installer did warn me that I was using a beta Live CD installer, so I worked through it and managed to get the OS installed.

A quick reboot later, and I behold! It booted! I proceed to log in, hooked it up to the internet, and played around with all the shiny (literally, the icons were incredibly reminiscent of any Web2.0 company's logo) programs.

I soon noticed a program telling me that I needed to upgrade, and upon clicking the notification, I proceeded to wade through the > 380 files I was told I needed to download. Not wanting to actually read them all, I just hit update and sat back to watch the magic happen...

...for TWO HOURS...

And that was just to download them all! Needless to say, I didn't sit through the entire upgrade process, but by the third hour, all the updates had installed, and I could move on with the experience.

Now, I'm using a copy of Kubuntu 7.04, the version of Kubuntu that comes out...after...the next version of Kubuntu...which isn't out yet...

Go figure.

To cut this (literally) 12-hour-long story down to size, I'm just going to bullet point everything else. Yes, I know its a lazy means of writing an article, but I'm sure you won't mind saving a few minutes:

> Automatix2 is a program designed to easily install MANY Linux programs, including MP3 SUPPORT and DVD PLAYBACK! I got it installed, but it wouldn't run because I wasn't running Ubuntu...that fact STILL confuses me, because as far as I know, Kubuntu IS Ubuntu with a different desktop environment.

> MP3 support had to be installed! I thought there were some freely-available DLL's that one could install for MP3 support, but are all of those in violation of some kind of patent for the MP3 compression algorithm? That could be the case.

> Wireless support for my laptop was non-existent after installing AND upgrading, which was one of the breaking points for me. If I can't move around with my laptop and still get internet, then I can't use the OS, simple as that.

> There is no safe-mode if you screw up the video driver. I learned that the hard way after installing the proprietary ATI driver. Luckily, I knew my way around the console enough to get back into the config file I modified and remove the modification, thus restoring my desktop.

> I had read an article talking about running Windows applications side-by-side Linux apps, something akin to Parallel's Coherence mode for Apple laptops. This was one of the features of Linux that intrigued me, since it held the promise of being able to work with some of the Windows applications I use on a daily basis (Web coding in Webuilder 2006, for example). Unfortunately, after attempting to set up three different virtual machine programs, Linux freaked out (I am almost certain it was because I canceled an installation script half way through the install procedure) and wouldn't install any other VM program I tried. I could have gone in and fixed the problem, but I was at 12th-hour and was too annoyed to proceed much further.

I'm sure there were a few other things that turned me off of the idea of migrating to Linux, but those were the major annoyances. Perhaps I was simply too spoiled with the ease at which I get things done with Windows, or maybe I went into the whole experience expecting not to get anything done. In any case, I reinstalled Windows, upgraded it, and installed the basic list of programs (Gaim, Windows Live Messenger, Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, IZArc, Foxit PDF Reader, Comodo Personal Firewall, AVG Anti-Virus, and some hardware drivers)* in about two hours.

Two hours with Windows[/b] and full hardware usability[/i]...or [b]12 hours with Linux and [i]more time needed to get everything working...

If only I'd know this yesterday! But as those crazy French say, sest la viyay! I mean, c'est la vie!

*All of these programs are freeware, enjoy!

Windows Vista came out, and you know that that means: obsession pondering of whether my laptop will be powerful enough or not to run it!

Enter the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor! This nifty free program from Microsoft scans your computer for hooka-jooks and sprockets that may or may not work with Vista and lets you know if you're ready for the big move. "Oh how handy, this is an awesome program," Microsoft must have been thinking when they released it...

Go jump off a friggin cliff, Microsoft. Your program sucks for one reason: I HAVE TO INSTALL IT!

Programs that are only designed to be used ONCE (for something like upgrade compatibility reports) SHOULD NOT HAVE TO BE INSTALLED! Give it to me in a zip, or if you're so obsessed with offering it as an EXE, make is a self-extracting EXE, unload all the files to a single self-contained folder on the desktop, and let the user run it from the folder! When I'm done with the program, I highlight the folder, right-click, 'Delete', and poof! Done!

But no! You'd rather I install the program, use it, and then go to the Control Panel, run Add/Remove Programs, wait for the list of programs I have installed to appear, scroll through the list of programs while I try to find the program ("is it Microsoft Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor? Just Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor? Give-More-Money-To-Microsoft Upgrade Notification Agent..."), click Remove, and then wait for the program to uninstall!

Once again, something so simple is made complicated because it CAN be made complicated! Next time, Microsoft and other programs I use once, try doing things the UNCOMPLICATED way please 'k thanks!

After a short reprieve, I've decided to get back into posting. I'll do a brief "whats going on" write-up tomorrow, but for now, check some of this stuff out:

Feinstein Speaks out on U.S. Atty Firings - http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002349.php
Senator Feinstein speaks out against the unwarranted firing of several US Attorneys across the US. The firings are not based on misconduct, but instead utilize a clause introduced into the PATRIOT Act when it was reinstated last year...now, the president can instate his cronies to preside over several upcoming cases dealing with corruption at a politician-level. Firing US Attorneys is within the power of the president, but what has changed is the time limit that interim attorneys are allowed to remain in their position; before the PATRIOT Act, interim attorneys were allowed to serve for a maximum period of 120 days, but recent changes to that policy give interims an infinite amount of time in their position.

Keith Olbermann's response to Bush's new plan for Iraq - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16583889/
Keith Olbermann tears into Bush, chastising him for being a complete and utterly incompetent president. Words can't do justice, so just click on the link to see Olbermann's response.

-----And on a technical note-----

Why upgrading to Microsoft Vista may be a smarter choice than purchasing new - http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2082979,00.asp
Here's an interesting article about Windows Vista and its upgrade procedure. Apparently, the installer for Windows Vista is leagues ahead of the installer that Windows XP is based off of, so upgrading from an existing install of XP appears to be a feasible option. After reading this article, I've reconsidered my stance on Vista and am now considering saving $150 by purchasing the upgrade to Windows Vista Ultimate...there's still a bit of time until Vista's release, and even more time until I make the jump to Vista, so I think I'll wait and see how other people to this new OS.

That should keep you guys and gals busy until I get to tomorrow's post. A hint for tomorrow, I've tested VirtualBox's now-open-source virtualization software, so look out for my review!

Every once in a while, I'll see some article on Digg about programming font alternatives and I'll find myself thinking, "is that really necessary?" I've been around programming for the last four or five years, and in all that time I've never once moved away from the default Windows IDE font.

For those of you who've never touched programming in a computer language, most programming integrated development environments (IDE) are set to use the monospaced Courier New font. Created in 1955 for typewriters, this font eventually found its way into Windows operating systems as far back as Windows 95. The strength in this font and many of the other monospaced fonts is that the characters all line up vertically. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

I've compared Courier New to Times New Roman because TNR is widely known as a popular font for word processors. As you can see from the guide lines in the image, all the characters typed in Courier New (the monospaced font) line up, while the characters typed in Times New Roman do not. A benefit to monospacing characters in code is that its possible to easily compare the content of various lines of code. If I want to compare a MySQL database connection string from one file to a similar string in another file, I can just copy-paste the two strings and compare their string length to check for any inconsistencies or differences between the two. With a font like Courier New you'll notices character differences between strings almost immediately.

Since I started coding, I've tried to switch fonts once or twice. I stayed away from TrueType fonts because I liked the look of monospaced characters, but finding a monospaced font I like was difficult. Every time I tried a different font, I thought the text was too small or the characters were too blocky. SOME monospaced fonts even boasted a special tiny size, as though I liked coding at size five font. No matter which font I tried, though, I ALWAYS moved back to Courier New. Call it stubborness, call it security, but I had found my favorite programming font a long time ago.

I suppose the perfect programming font is determined solely by personal preference. Personal experience tells me that, for a word document, non-monotype-fonts such as TNR are perfect because they set up words that look more naturally-spaced, similar to how someone would write. When it comes down to programming, monospace fonts are the way to go because of how neat the code looks easy it is to compare various bits of code. Just my two cents.

I found this video from 2003 of what Windows Longhorn was going to be, and it made me sad to see just how much the product changed from the vision:



So much potential...in any case, I have an actual article waiting in the wings, I just need to write it. It involves coding interfaces, so check back in a day or two, it should make for an interesting read.

Earlier this year, I posted an article on creating an unattended XP installation disc. I was at a point where I needed to reinstall Windows, so I went ahead with that project and created an up-to-date copy of XP that installed without me needing to be there (hence, 'unattended').

Well, besides MSTSC support that mysteriously didn't get installed, my copy of XP seemed to be quirk free...until now. Over the last 6 months, I've watched as my computer slowly fell apart from the inside out. In the last month alone, I've had to deal with a Firefox profile that...deleted...itself? I dunno what happened, but the toolbars were all organized differently and my booksmarks were deleted. I was able to restore Firefox to working condition, but today my 200GB Maxtor harddrive failed to write files twice, forcing a hard reboot each time. At one point during reboot, BIOS didn't even recognize the drive, reporting it as an apostrophe instead of its model name. Windows wouldn't boot with the bad drive attached, so I thought I was totally screwed.

Its like my computer doesn't want to do its job anymore. I had moved all my important personal files to the faulty harddrive before[/i] it was faulty, since it was newer than my primary drive and I wanted to have my files seperate from the harddrive that contained the OS. As luck would have it, the drive was recognized after being unplugged for about an hour, so I took what little time I had left with the drive to transfer all of My Documents, all of my [i]web sites in localhost root (talk about a near heart attack!!!), all my music, and my collection of RvB.

Now, I just have to get some money together to purchase a new harddrive to replace the one that kept freeking out; I'm not about to risk anymore files to a hard drive that intermittently works...oh, and in relation to the title, I suppose most of the problems can be contributed to the method I used to install XP this time around.

Can you believe I've installed XP a total of six times on this machine? Its only been, what, 2.5 years since I built it, and I'm preparing for a seventh reinstallation of my OS. As I told a friend recently: "Windows is like a really bitchy but super hawt girl...so many things to do with her, but sometimes its just too much to deal with"

File recovery can be a bear, especially if you're trying to recover the family's business documents off of a hard drive that mysteriously goes kaput during an OS upgrade.

Enter the freeware file recovery application PC INSPECTOR File Recovery.

PC INSPECTOR File Recovery is the best software-based file recovery program I've ever found that is completely free for anyone to use. I got a crash course on how it worked early last year, and I was very impressed. Here's my story:

I had to recover files off a drive that, for some unknown reason, prevented me from viewing its contents. I was upgrading my parents' computer to Windows XP when the old hard drive containing their previous OS and files failed to be recognized by the new OS. The drive in question was receiving power and was spinning up, but there was no easily identifiable reason for the drive not being accessible through XP. That's when I found the File Recovery program.

Using this program, I was able to read the contents of the improperly functioning hard drive, recover all of my parents' important documents off the drive, put them onto my computer, and then transfer the files to the new hard drive.

File recovery in general is not for the weak of heart or the eagerly excited. This program takes some patience to learn and patience to sit through one or two entire drive scans because you accidentally chose the incorrect scan options. I would advise anyone interested in using this program to get a competent, technology-savvy individual to help you out. There are times when impatient individuals may mistake their computer freezing up for a system crash, when in reality the program is using 100% of the CPU to scan the culprit drive. Scans of drives can also take upwards of 15-20 minutes; it is important during this time to leave the computer that is scanning the drive alone unless you want to brick your drive and lose all of your data (or, if you prefer to to pay for professional, $1000+ harddrive recovery...).

I took the liberty of capturing some screens of the program to show you what it looks like in action:

1. You have the option of recovering accidentally deleted files, scanning a drive for accidentally formatted files, and recover an entire drive if it fails to show up.

2. After your computer is scanned for attached hard drives (regardless of if they're recognized by Windows or not), File Recovery shows you all the drives it can scan. Choose one and click the check-mark.

3. You'll see a progress bar displaying how far into the scan the program is; don't expect it to move real fast, especially if you're recovering files off of a large-capacity drive.

3a. During the scan, its not unusual for the program to use close to 100% of the CPU and for your computer to run like molasses.

4. When the scan is complete, you'll get an explorer-esque file tree of all the files that you've "deleted". To recover a file, click on the folder you want to recover, right-click and select "Save to...". Choose an output folder (on another drive, obviously) and the program will recover the presumed-lost files. The same works for drives that no longer display under My Computer on XP.

With my lust for a new site design thus sated, I've decided to turn my attention towards the great task of finding open source (read: free) alternatives to many of the programs I employ on a daily basis. Why would I look for such alternatives? Quite simply, it is because many of the programs I use were acquired under questionable circumstances.

There are 2 main suites of programs I use on a regular basis that I have become very comfortable with and that form the back-bone of any work I do on my computer. A recent talk with a teacher of mine (who also owns his own business) got me thinking, though, that my violating each program?s EULA could get me in big trouble if someone audited me on a (perhaps vengeful) whim.

SO! In the interests of preventing any future jail time, I?ve decided to make the switch to freely-available programs that accomplish the same task as the programs I?m illegally running. I have some past experiences with many of these programs, and as painful as it might be to learn new programs, I figured I?d turn this into a post to get you guys thinking about alternatives to programs that people "just can?t live without":

- Microsoft Office 2003 --> OpenOffice.org
I tested OOo about 4 months ago, at a time when it received a lot of praise for the way it offered Microsoft Office functionality in a free package. OOo is a suite of programs and includes a word processor (Writer), slideshow creator (Impress), spreadsheet (Calc), vector drawing tool (Draw), and mathematical function writer (Math).

At the time I tested it, OpenOffice was very promising. I could open and edit all of my documents I created in Microsoft Word with Writer, and my Powerpoint slideshows crossed over well to Impress (thought not without minimal loss due to Powerpoint-specific features). I was very impressed with Math, as it offered a replacement to MathType 5, and would definitely come into use on future math assignments. Calc was almost a copy of Excel, making it easy to learn and use.
Several updates to OOo have come out since I last tested it, and I?m looking forward to seeing if it is still the Office-killer it claims to be.

- Macromedia Fireworks --> Gimp for Windows
Fireworks is an excellent program for graphic design, and it?s been my weapon of choice because I?ve had a hard time figuring out Photoshop. The Gimp is a free graphic editor that some say rivals Adobe?s Photoshop, so of course I?ve had a difficult time learning this program.

I used The Gimp for about a month, and what I experienced was incredible! This program had so many different types of filters and ways to manipulate pictures, from image embossing to drop shadows, and many others that were lost to me. What amazed me even more was that such a program (which I am convinced is on-par with Photoshop) was and still is offered completely free of charge!

With a bit of determination, I?ll be able to get a handle on such an excellent program, but for now I?ll stumble through like the newbie I am.

- Macromedia Dreamweaver--> PHP Designer 2006
I spent a good deal of time testing out some possible replacements in this category, trying to find one that I would feel comfortable enough to replace Dreamweaver with. I believe I've found the best FREE PHP editor with PHP Designer 2006. I was looking for a program that had syntax highlighting and code hinting for PHP commands, and this program fit the bill nicely.

I tested out the Beta release, version 4.0.6, and though it was not without its quirks (all minor annoyances, like the PHP debugger info mysteriously deleting itself!), most of the functionality of Dreamweaver had made it into PHPD2k6. I could organize the sites I work on into various "Projects", syntax color schemes were demonstrated and easily changed from the Options > Properties menu, and I could also preview my PHP code straight from inside PHPD2k6!

Until I scrounge up some decent money for a commercial PHP editor, there's no doubt in my mind that I'll be using this program to work on future PHP pages.

That just leaves one more program I need to find a suitable alternative for:

- I use Macromedia Flash for animation and drawing, and I have yet to find ANY program that could be a replacement. This is the one program I may have to do without until I earn enough money to buy legal copies of Macromedia Studio 8 (around $1000).

So yeah, that about wraps this post up. I?ll let you all know how the transition works out, and let me know if you think there are any better programs out there than the ones I mentioned; I?m always eager to try out new things!

[quote]--Edited 4/30/05--
- Inserted "Dreamweaver --> PHPD2k6"
- Removed section about finding replacement for Dreamweaver[/quote]

As quoted from Mod-HQ:

[quote]Valve's Doug Lombardi has confirmed to Mod-HQthat their upcoming expansion pack Half-Life 2: Aftermath will ship on April 24.

"We're currently targeting April 24th for the release of both Aftermath and Platinum.Platinum will include HL2, HL2 DM, CS: Source, DoD: Source, and Aftermath."[/quote]
Wow, its about time. Aftermath dropped off the radar around Novermber, and I hadn't heard anything about it until now. I hope this expansion to Half Life 2 lives up to the hype...

Here's an interesting site I came across earlier today:

http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/

It's a site that describes how to create an up-to-date, fully automated Windows installation CD, from 2000 to 2003 (yes, XP is included in that group).

This guide walks you through slipstreaming Service Pack 2 and integrating all the Windows updates into a default Windows installation. The descriptions are very detailed, and links are included throughout the guide that direct you to the various downloads you'll need to complete a particular part of the process.

I spent a couple hours today creating my "UXPCD" (Unattended XP CD), and there were so many ways to customize it.

To start, I copied and pasted all the contents of my Windows XP CD to my hard drive. My personal copy of XP was bought about a year and a half ago, and it came with Service Pack 1a integrated into the install. Slipstreaming Service Pack 2 onto my XP installation was very painless and fast; all I had to do was pass a switch onto the Service Pack executable, and Windows handled the rest.

Next up was integrating the updated that Microsoft had released since Service Pack 2. If you decide to try the guide out, when you get to the "Hotfixes" section, be warned that you'll need to download about 25-30 different patches. The guide offers a few ways of downloading all the Hotfixes you'll need; I opted for the forum (http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=31886), as it had all Microsoft Hotfixes sorted according to OS and Service Pack status. I ended up downloading all the patches under "Windows XP Patched SP2", since I had already added Service Pack 2 into my new installation.

From there, I spent some time with my good ol' friend, Mr. Run Prompt, passing /integrate to all the Hotfixes I had downloaded, and before I knew it (this part really only took about 10 minutes), I had an XP installation image that was fully up to date, up to Service Pack 2 and all its subsequent Hotfixes.

After you get the Hotfixes integrated into your install, the guide goes on to describe many ways to customize your install. There's a section on adding in drivers for almost every (exaggeration) piece of hardware XP could run on, automating the installation of many popular programs, including Ad-Aware, DirectX 9.0c, and WinRAR, among others, and even how to add in your own OEM information that appears in System Properties, in case you're doing this for a company network.

If you're into computers, this process is a lot more interesting than I'm making it out to be. I have yet to test my CD out, but I'm hoping that by tomorrow, I'll be able to report back on a successful install.