The Win 7 migration begins!

I just bought the final version of Windows 7 from Best Buy and have started to install it on my various computers.  If you’d like to join in on the Windows 7 fun there are a few relatively inexpensive ways of doing it.  For starters there’s the Windows 7 Family Pack.  I bought the Win 7 Family Pack from Best Buy for $149.99 which gives me three licence keys but you can get it online for a limited time at the Microsoft website too. 

Best Buy is actually selling the family pack for $199.99 but if you go in and let them know that Microsoft itself is selling it for $149.99 online they’ll price-match it. $149.99 isn’t all that cheap but considering that a copy of Win 7 with one licence key is $129.99 three keys for 20 bucks more isn’t a bad deal at all.

We have four computers at home which means we’re still short one key even with the family pack.  Luckily my fiancée is still in school which means we can get a copy of Win 7 Home Premium or Professional for just $39.99! (They’re both the same price for the promo.)  All you need is a valid university or college email address and you’re good to go.  Here’s the link for the deal in Canada:

http://www.windows.ca/studentoffer

For an extra $12 bucks they’ll even ship you a DVD which is what I ended up getting because I plan on doing a clean install and a DVD is the best way.  Otherwise what you get is a download file which is a few gigabytes and will take a while to download.  Sadly the file you get is not an .iso file which is easy to put on a DVD but rather it’s an .exe file which means you can’t really make a bootable DVD.  The file is basically designed to do an in place upgrade of your system and not a clean install.  For 12 bucks extra though you get a legit, bootable DVD which brings the total for Win 7 Pro to a whopping $52 which is way less expensive than the $219.99 it would cost otherwise.

For my American cousins and others around the world you can check out your own country specific deals at www.win741.com.

Although I’ve been running Vista on my laptop for most of the year (see here for the reason why I had to) I’ve had Win 7 running on all the other machines in the house with almost no problems at all.  Since the other machines are running the Release Candidate build of 7, they’re good until June 2010 so there’s no real hurry to get them on the final release. I decided instead to install the final version on my Vista laptop to see if anything in the final code has changed and because the PC was a dog with Vista.  Much to my pleasant surprise Win 7 has been changed a little and has sped up my laptop noticeably!!

First and most importantly, the wi-fi problem I found in the Release Candidate version of 7 seems to have be fixed in the final build. I’m hesitant to install an available optional update for my Broadcom wi-fi card however, just in case it breaks my now perfectly working wi-fi connectivity again.  Another thing I noticed is that the ‘reveal desktop’ button on the right side of the taskbar has gotten bigger in the final build although that could just be my imagination or it could be that it’s bigger on tablet PCs compared to other more conventional screens, all I know is that it’s now bigger.  I’ve had fewer driver issues on my laptop than I did when I installed the RC build on it a few months ago and overall Win 7 is quite a lot faster than the Vista install it replaced although I’m pretty sure some of that new speed can be attributed to the fact that I’m now missing the HP bloat-ware found in Vista.

Overall I’m happy so far with it and haven’t had any problems as yet.  There are deals out there to get cheap versions of Win 7 so I’d do a bit of hunting rather than pay the full retail price.  Also there are credible rumours that it is again possible to do a clean install with the upgrade version.  I won’t get into the details here but if you’re curious Google it.

Picture of the Day!

I saw this on our way out of the Rona parking lot on Hunt Club Rd.  Maybe it’s only funny because my mom’s a nurse but I think it’s awesome!  I wonder if the Lil Stool House did it on purpose?

Renovo Hardwood Bicycles – make me want to bike more

What’s this?  Bikes made out of wood?!?  That’s right.  And these bikes are absolutely gorgeous.  In fact, if I had a couple grand laying around I’d totally buy one!  Maybe I should put it on my wedding registry? 

Anyway they have several different kinds of bike depending on price and what you’d like to do with it. (ie touring, racing, commuting etc.)  They use a wide variety of wood types each for their unique properties and appearance.  Personally I like the R2 Road bike with Maple and Bubinga. (pictured below)

The people that make these bikes call them “heirloom quality” and I have to agree.  Check out the site, the bikes are really cool!!!

http://www.renovobikes.com

First World Malaise

A group of people rushed toward what looked to be a shipping pallet sitting on the ground.  They quickly encircled it and began tearing away at it’s contents.  Grown men and women pushing each other out of the way to get at what lay in front of them.  Toddlers, frightened by the animal-like behaviour of the adults around them, began to cry as their mothers tried to protect them from a crowd that was growing increasingly frantic.  ‘Would there be enough?’  Older women in the crowd, perhaps once mothers themselves, soon began to lose their sense of civility and became increasingly aggressive, forcing their way to the front.  Empty boxes began to fly back into the crowd as others awaited anxiously to get at what lay on the pallet.  It was everyone for themselves.  Courtesy and dignity had long since vanished and some people on the fringes of the mob eventually gave up and continued on their way.

What could have caused such a scene?  A desperately needed food shipment to a starving population?  Maybe.  Urgently needed medical supplies to a disaster zone?  Perhaps, but not in this case.  No, in this case it was 29 dollar bed sheets at Ikea.  That’s right, Ikea Ottawa had a sale on bed sheets and people went ape.  I was there of course because I too needed bed sheets and they were selling ones that match my decor.  I never actually got to the front of the mob though because I decided it was not worth losing my sense of self for $29 bed sheets.  Plus I was afraid someone might try to claw my eyes out or something if I got too close.  Thankfully some kind soul realized they had grabbed the wrong colour and asked if I wanted a crème-coloured queen-sized bed sheet.  I did and thanked them for it.  I stood and watched the mob for a little bit somewhat disgusted with society then left to go have a $1 Ikea breakfast.  It was delicious.

The scene got me thinking, if that’s how people behave for $29 bed sheets I’d hate to see a real emergency situation.  Maybe I really should learn to hunt and keep enough fuel around for me to get to the cottage in a pinch.  You know, just in case a disaster hit or zombies attacked or something.  That way I wouldn’t have to worry about the primal instincts of other city dwellers in the event of a food shortage and could just hang out in peace at the cottage.

Seriously people?!?  For bed sheets?!?  Come on!