Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Making a Bootable XP SP2 CD

Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Slipstreaming Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2)

I'm definitely going to try this!

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install

A very interesting set of pages about repair installs, in place updates, changing activation keys, etc.

How to change the product key on a Windows XP SP1-based computer

328874 - How to change the Volume Licensing product key on a Windows XP SP1-based computer

I actually have a completely ethical reason, not involving any bad actions, to need to change the product key associated with my XP Pro installation. Good to know it can be done!

Google Local Search

Google Local

Google has redone their local search. The big addition is the maps. I can't tell who the map provider is; they've been deemphasizing their relationship with Yahoo. I'm very curious as to what Google will do with maps and location -- Yahoo has really dropped the ball here. They could have done so much more.

When specifying location use the complete address, not just the city. If you do the latter, Google searches from city center.

Microsoft has broken something in their backup software

Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:80042301

Not clear what's happening here, but sometime in the past few months it seems a windows upgrade broke the shadow copy mode. Regular backup mode works, but one can see this errror message in the log.

This MCSE note says:
If you're using an NTFS volume, try the steps listed below:

Open Regedt32.exe and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\setup

Change the "UpgradeInProgress" value to 0.
Unfortunately, there's no such key in my registry. The closest one is "SystemSetupInProgress" and it's already set to 0.

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

The Luminous Landscape: A very SERIOUS digital photography site

The Luminous Landscape

More than any mortal would want to know. The intersection of geeks and digital cameras has produced some extreme results.

FixIt Guides for Apple Laptops

FixIt Guide Series: Laptop Repair:

Broke your computer, but can't afford $100/hr to have someone fix it? Want to upgrade your RAM or hard drive, but don't feel comfortable diving in without any experience? The FixIt Guide Series is your solution. Each FixIt Guide has detailed disassembly instructions that walk you through the process of easily accessing and replacing components in your PowerBook or iBook.