I got the bright idea of wiping the hard drive on my Gateway M275 Convertible Notebook.  Halfway into the install, it failed.  Seems my CD-Rom is idelibily scratched.  Went out to the Gateway site to order a new one, and they sent me to a MPCCorp website.  Who filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  Come to find out, today is their last day of operation and they haven't been able to send out any new System Recovery Disks.

However, I have an MSDN Accademic Alliance subscription, and downloaded a version of the XP Tablet software.  However, it wants a CD I don't have and don't see on the MSDN site, which I think is essential to networking.

After another internet search today, I saw where someone else had loaded Vista on theirs and it worked, so I tried that.  Sure enough, not only does Vista work but it works well.

Right now, I'm playing music off the Zune marketplace which I couldn't do before the Vista install.

Oh, and the point?  I want a portable game development machine.  I've already used this computer to develop XBox360 games, but doing so with the Zune would make it even more portable.

I do have a lead on a getting the original System Restore disk, in case anyone is interested, but I think the Vista route is the best.

Thanks as always to the Microsoft Cruise ship gang, especially AlfredTwo and Crutkas (my Microsoft Twitter gods).

UPDATE: If you have a Gateway Notebook and need the recovery software, contact me.  I think I can help, and don't think it is a problem since neither company will take responsibility and it won't work without the code on the computer.

VISTA IS a good option.  Right now, my Zune is working well,and the Zune software won't load at all running Windows XP.

So my husband and I are on our way to the Las Vegas Alice and Media Computation workshop. I have had internet access most of the trip. We left Dallas at noon and are approaching Santa Rosa New Mexico. Several times I have had little Gs on the screen but the 8525 just reconnects and grabs stuff from the exchange server when that happens. the most 'fun' has been the GPS and following our progress with it. Don't woory it get worse I am insisting we stop at a stuckys and have been taking pictures of reststops.

We had a major storm this week, and as always, I lost a piece of equipment.  This time, a 19" LCD monitor. 

I decided to go over to the local Office Depot and replace it.  Found the exact same monitor for just under $200, so pulled the ticket and went to the register.  Took a while for them to come back with it, and when they did, they told me that there was "good new and bad news".

Bad news -- they didn't have the 19" monitor.

Good news -- they had the same brand monitor (Viewsonic), but bigger 20" wide screen, for $50.00 less.

Yes, it's the monitor I'm using to write this post.

Okay, it's been awhile since I've blogged.  STEM money, family money and some other grant money have all come together, and I've been picking up some little toys.

One is a Cingular 8525.  I was sort of thinking of waiting for the TILT and going with Windows Mobile 6, but I really liked the Cingular 8525 so picked it up a few weeks ago.

Well, last night I had a few free moments at Frye's -- I've been thinking of ordering a GSP Bluetooth Receiver on line, cheap, but I was a bit afraid of it.  You, I had a GPS receiver a long time ago when you could hook one up to a Palm pilot.  Didn't work well.

Well, I picked up a Nokia one for $49.99 and man is it sweet.  For me, it's perfect, with either Google maps or Live Search.  I may have to go somewhere just to play with it.

Love it!  HD picture is gorgeous and it is MUCH cheaper than Time Warner.  Plus there are not 5 duplicate channels.

Interesting, I can watch the HD channels with a regular TV.  I assume I'm use the HD stream but will have to see.

I've gone out to the Palm website and I am disappointed in the Foleo. However, I have been disappointed in my Treo since I for my Cingular 8125.

I am actually writing this blog post and not typing it. I am using my new Gateway convertible PC and it is much easier to use then I imagine the Folio is.Besot's using the tablet isn't that hard pairing it with the 8125 isn't had either.

Yes the tablet is more expensive but I think I get more bang for my buck.

Between the ability to tether and just the ability to get more things done the 8125 has really made teaching easier.

Yes, I can do most of those functions with the Treo, the 8125 is just easier.

If you guys recall, or go back to the archives, I have a new telephone which I love. Well, I got the rebate back today and so far, I'm loving that too. They sent me a Visa card with $100 on it.

So far, it looks good. I just activated it, and hope to use it. The only weird part is that if you use it to buy gas, you can't use it at the pump -- I think that's because of how debit cards are handled at the pump.

At least for me. Especially if there is wifi around. I did not open my laptop while I was in houston. Virtual earth got me there. Ereader kept my luggage weight down. I had email,gmail, and district email access 24/7. So, I mailed in the rebate form today.

We have Visual Studio 2003 on our computers, and I had a spare moment today, so I took a few minutes and wrote a quick and dirty VB program, created the CAB and downloaded it to my phone.  Same level of program my regular CS kids are writing and creating.

I am not sure they got how cool it is that it is THAT easy to do, hopefully they will.  I'm going to show all my classes that today.

By the way, I got the idea of doing it from Alfred Thompson's blog!