The real Vista experience begins

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It’s been a gloomy, rainy Sunday. I tried to stave off boredom this morning by finally completing yet another home improvement project, namely adding a proper cable outlet for the cable modem in the computer room. After that, I thought I might try out the final version of Windows Vista. As I wrote that last sentence, I looked back at the other computer to see the famous Blue Screen of Death. Apparently, the upgrade didn’t go so well. hmmm… Well, looks like I’ve got some troubleshooting to do. Thankfully I made a backup of my hard drive before I started this! 🙂

update: Phew… As it turns out, it was just a driver issue. One nice feature of Vista is that if something doesn’t work out during the first reboot, you can select an option to boot your previous OS and it will be restored to the pre-upgrade state. Nice! The down side is that you have to go through the whole process all over again.

update 2: So long Vista, I barely knew ye! Well, after playing around with Vista for a couple of days, I decided to revert back to Windows XP SP2. As it turns out, my motherboard is based on NVidia’s NForce2 series chipset and while there is a basic level of driver support for it, NVidia has decided not to do any further driver development for that platform. As this is my gaming box, and I can’t live without some features like the 5.1 channel sound, Vista had to go. Instead, I’ll probably be loading it on my workstation at the office. So for any of you considering doing the upgrade, make an inventory of your hardware and research the driver support before you make the plunge!

It’s a girl!

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I’ve heard a lot of opinions in the past few months on whether Nan and I would be having a boy or a girl. We’d been trying to think of names, but so far had only come up with a few female names that we liked. Whether we actually knew something subconsciously, or were just lazy with the male names, it worked out because we found out this morning that we’re having a girl! Nan and I couldn’t be more excited, in fact I couldn’t even wait until I got to the office to tell someone.

Out and about…

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With the imminent birth of the peanut on the horizon, Nan and I decided to get in a little traveling while she was still up to it. First on the list was a trip to see friends in Yorktown, VA and Washington, D.C. We left for VA in late September with all the trees turning that beautiful spectrum of yellow to dark orange, what a perfect time to visit! Our best friends Meg and Rob joined us on the trip to D.C. where they ran the Marine Corps marathon. While they ran, Nan and I visited Keerti and Craig who recently got married in Charleston. It was good to be back among friends in my old stomping grounds. A couple of weeks later, we were off again, this time to Chicago. Nan and I had thought of going to New York, but flights weren’t cheap, and neither of us had been to Chicago. We stayed with our friends Barnali and Alok who have a beautiful house in Berwyn just outside the city. Barnali and Nan grew up together and both got pregnant around the same time. A few people thought we were crazy for going up there in the winter, but the weather was good and we had a great time with our friends!