Went to the computer store again today to check up. Mostly it’s not to see if the repair has been finished or not, but I just want to tell them that I decided to look for the replacement somewhere else. So that be it, I guess I’ll borrow the rest of the money somewhere first and return it after the repair is finished and I sell my old notebook. The model is Pavilion Tx1221au, bought it less than two years ago but it seems that the local service centre runs out of spare part to replace the damaged component (assumed to be the motherboard).

Had to check somewhere else. I prefer looking for independent importers because the price can be almost USD200 cheaper than the official, not to mention last time I bought it, they include the 6-cells battery (cost almost USD 100 here) which official distributors stripped away.

There’s a store stocking Pavilion dv2. It’s thin, and cute. The three points that become minus point for me is the single core processor, the ugly keyboard, and the mirror-like touch pad. The configuration sold in Indonesia would have these difference.

• 2 GB RAM.
• 32 bit Windows Vista.

It cost USD 799 with little asterisk mark (strings attached). Same model, with 4 GB RAM and 64 bit Windows Vista would cost USD 749 in HP (US) online store before rebate. The model I want (Tx2) would cost approx USD 1300 through official channel, while in HP online store, similar configuration would cost about USD 1100, not including the USD 200 rebate. Other brand might even had larger gap.

After browsing the stores, went to the Kinokuniya book store. According to the local store’s Twitter account, they’re having 15% discount in one of the stores. Went to both stores, but there’s no interesting books. Luckily yesterday someone from the office has gone there, so I’m relieved from having to check the books. Despite the discount, there’s not many peoples there. I assume it’s because of two deciding factor:

• Import books, cost hefty price even after 15% discount.
• The branch store that had the discount doesn’t really have that much collection to start with.
• Extra: another book store, local book store, is having 30% discount upstair.

There are some books I’m interested in, but the price tag is high for my income. I guess, I’ll spend time some day near my alma mater university to look for it in the local book kiosks.

By the way, when having lunch (should’ve ordered Caesar salad instead, the Fusilli had chilli in the mix), can’t find my favourite bottled drink. Settled down with second favourite (Chrysanthemum tea).

Update: [2009-05-31 06:05] – rewrite.

When browsing to HP’s Japanese site today, I found the page about Imprint finish. Seems like Japanese market has different marketing name for the imprint designs, they call it “Zen Design”. Personally, I also like the name and design inspiration there better.

Also if I’m not mistaken, Dragon (HDX) is called Ibuki (breath)

Some of the designs are similar, but other had seemingly totally different direction of design inspiration, which brings up question about which one the designer actually have as inspiration here.

Because the lacking of titles to work on, we’re given title from the neighbouring label. Well, the label is made for adult oriented stories (not porn) but seeing the portfolio of available titles yesterday made me rather… in doubt about the choice. Personally, I think I’m interested more with the selection of the sister publishing, seems to present more of the genre I’d be interested in.

One of the titles I got is “Bambino!”, a comic about a young man who wants to be a great Italian chef. Well, I’m interested in the cooking part, but after skimming through the story, I think the (over)-dramatization of many scenes, especially the main character’s emotion, tiredness and expression is too much for my taste of this genre.

Actually, despite that the comics I read often even have high amount of absurdity, I don’t really like the more realistic comics that I felt to over-express the emotion of characters. It felt just… unnatural to look at, just like the expressions in soap operas.

Consumer’s attention span seems to get shorter don’t they? Well, these days, competition are high so peoples prefer to have their life practical because work and competition is hectic enough for one lifetime to bother. Life is in the fast lane, so is the rhythm of life, so everything has to come fast so it can be consumed in the short time available before continue to compete against others. The faster rhythm then means that we want something fast, that includes time between rumour and product.

Anyway, actually I’m thinking of animation and comic. When I first entered the hobby at late 90s, internet is still not so widespread. That time, communities are close and like an exclusive gathering. During those time, there are many classic titles that carve their mark in memories. Even if those titles no longer become favourite, they have their followers and remembered as part of history.

Then, these days, high speed internet are more common and become communication as well as (illegal) distribution channel. There are dozens of products appearing each seasons; that’s not including from the many publications. With so much products, attention span shortens a lot to what’s now. The fans are also split among products, leaving less momentum to each than in the past.

Rather than the offset created by the creation of larger fan base as well as easier access to illegally-free material, actually the mindset is carved. There seems to be higher percentage of fad fans than loyalist fans. Other thing is the greater number of products, that in the relatively same (actually lowering) buying capacity of consumers, getting more difficult to sell. Come on, how do you expect to sell twice as much products with price already rising quadruple of what it was to peoples whose ability to buy is lowered by the rising price. If the consumer get more selective in buying, then there ought to be products that doesn’t sell as expected right ? Logically speaking.

I might slack off most of the time and missed the bigger view, but the formula is not good in my opinion.

I tried Twine again today. Actually, I’ve joined there earlier because I saw the option available in FriendFeed. Seems true, online service aggregators motivate to try many online services :D

When I first joined, I don’t really understand how it works, and after trying for a while, I still doesn’t really understand how it works.

It seems like the users can create Twine, which is a channel on certain interest. Through bookmarklet, the Twine users can add a contents to the Twine, like online bookmarking tools (del.icio.us, Digg, etc.).

For the consumers, by subscribing to these channels, we can get information gathered and selected by fellow users from across the internet, much like RSS feed but whose content are picked by other users from multiple source.

But as most services without enough momentum yet, I find most Twines that I had interest on is… not going anywhere. As if the person create the Twine just to try the service, but then decided that they don’t like it and just abandon it.

I do had a topic that I had motivation to continue looking and archive my bookmarks there, so I guess I’ll be able to try keeping that Twine alive for some time. Good luck to myself.

Not so fun news today in the office. When I asked to my manager about the FTE status, she mentioned that the mid-level manager got note from the HRD, an unpleasant note. Apparently, contract workers from the whole group has their status frozen indeterminately from promotion to FTE regardless of how critical the position is. Right, and I’m already not so happy because they extend my contract and in the company birthday one of the manager asked if I’m promoted already. I guess I’ll keep my further complaints because it’s all still based on suspicion, but I still hope to have some compensation tomorrow with the manager.

The problem lies less with the employment status than with my family actually. I don’t like the over-optimistic targeting and the slow internet connection, but I actually enjoyed my job, it’s a job I had passion in. But, being a “comic editor” doesn’t really do well in the family. Yes, it might sounds like I had a wonderful job to the relatives about my generation, but to my parents, it’s a profession looked down (well, anything other than management, entrepreneur and job that makes lots of money) and if I didn’t get the FTE status I’m in threat of forced to switch to another job altogether.

I do had to admit, contract worker salary here is definitely very tight, I don’t think I’ll even have enough for my three basic need yet for quite some time.

Well, hope I had some luck tomorrow.

And even big room. My dream last night is more… linked to my experience before sleep IMO. Last night, my father is back from his trip, bringing paperwork I don’t want to do, really. Being tired after a boring day, I text myself to sleep (typing in my phone until I fell asleep) and the dream just continue from there.

Being an ignorant person, I ignored the fact that my room is now in the first floor, about as large as twice my living room with full set of home theatre (weird, because I’d prefer computer unit) and having glass window/door facing a spacious garden. But hey, it’s a dream, things gets absurd in that space.

The story is simple. I want to stay awake until later in the night, while my father is still outside, He even showed up from the window, watching into the room like a thief stalking his target.

Hate this.

Today, I’m totally bored here at home. That leaves a day time to contemplate about what I want from a mobile device, while waiting for the Palm Pre, which I don’t know how long before it arrived in Indonesia and reach an acceptable price (not marked up with “luxury” cost).
Okay, I lied, had it in 10 minutes, but the waiting is real.

Looking at feature phones, the higher end models for example, they actually fits most of my needs already. Wi-Fi and high speed internet, music player, Office file editing, e-mail, browser, RSS reader. In all, I think I’d really like to use those phones instead. To add to my motivation, thanks to the full touch-rush that’s started by that phone, there’s even less pretty designed clamshell model phone, even though both design could be merged to one.

So, which feature is it ?

Online PIM. Contacts, Calendar, such things. Well, Windows Live still fall short on the calendar side and I had negative sentiment towards Google’s.

Yesterday, celebrating the developer’s corporate birthday, and in cooperation with the local government, one of the higher class residential area in city held a carnival. The main theme are things that are easier to sell than real estate, vehicle or electronics; and those are: fashion & food.

The time is rather tight. In the morning I planned on going after picking up my notebook. But the store said it’s not done yet. It seems like HP Indonesia had trouble looking for replacement for my Tx1221au unit. The shop owner also said the older model is sold already and he’s importing Tx2 units soon, and offer me that. Well, I intended to get the Tx2 myself, if not just because I’m rather limited in the finance department. They said they’ll get the new unit soon, but no idea on when mine will be finished.

Later I guess I had to try negotiating it. My budget is rather limited so if they upped the price I might not be able to buy a replacement, which I want to avoid because other than mine is already rather old, after such major repair I’m not so sure it’ll be working smoothly for long. Besides, if I hold it back for too long, the price will keep falling to an abysmal level.

Rather disappointed, I decided going home first and took a bath. The time is tight, so I might just take the taxi so for not being late to the movie. But my mom offered a ride after she took back the repaired car, lucky.

Bought ticket, drinks from the supermarket, and then enjoy it together.

After the movie, and a moment to the toilet, I snapped this. Yes, outdoor unit for air conditioning device, a great invention of our time in my opinion because I hate the heat in tropical region. Don’t know why, but I kind of liking these stuffs, especially the larger cooling units. Likes large stuffs, like cooling towers or battleships :D

This is a certain time, so we can’t stay for long. After all, if the traffic starts getting re-routed for the carnival, it’ll be great deal of inconvenience to go back. Well, I’ll try again next year, they’ll still be holding this event right ?

To get back, I choose taking the bus rather than taxi to save on money. I’m glade I took the motorbike to the terminal. There, the person in charge in the lane said the bus I’m planning to ride on already left, so I took the special bus instead. It’s cheaper actually, but I still have to transfer, which is the thing I want to avoid for in the first place.

Anyway, arrived back home safely, just in time when the rain starts to pour down.

We watched this today, finally. The time is rather tight, more explanation on the next post, but as promised, got to watch it together.

For the more critical peoples, maybe this sequel would be a letdown. At least from my point of view, compared to the first movie, in exchange of having more casts, there are not enough time to be friendly with the whole casts, especially the bad guys’ side (Ivan, Napoleon and Al).

Not that I would protest anyway, I had my share of laugh and that’s the whole reason I pay for the ticket, not for some theme or moral teaching or deep thought work of literature art, but for plain simple laugh. :D

Never knew before that the Smithsonian is a complex. And the 136 million items in collection… the history sure had a lot of things doesn’t it ?

The “moral lesson” part from Teddy does reminds me of the strip from Office Offline, the wordings I mean.

Made me feel sad in a way though. Amelia’s words about why she choose her job made me feel… left in the real world when dealing with why I choose my job now and why my parents keep insisting me on choosing jobs with better income.

I used to think, peoples who give the finger to others are categorized in two group. First group are peoples who don’t have the guts to show their real thing to other and thus resorted to such symbolism.

Second group, consist of half human population who by design, is impossible to show the mentioned thing.

Well, it might not looks so, but it hurts… my finger, I mean. I opened the toilet door too wide and my finger is in between the handle and the wall. Caused slight bruise, broke some capillary vein, but nothing to scream in pain about, after all, it’s the dull pain instead of sharp.

Not so sure on the term, but I remembered article in newspaper some years ago. Indonesian had several simple words, such as “sakit”, “nyeri”, in English, there’s wider collection of vocabulary to explain specific type of pain which might come in handy in medical interview.

Yesterday we had a one day national vacation.

My father went to Batam island to manage some property he and his friends had there, until Sunday I assume, because he did mention about can’t go to his friend’s (children?) wedding reception on Saturday night. Unfortunately, I know none of who’s getting married, so I can’t go in exchange (well, I can come for the free dinner, but definitely not alone).

My earlier plan is going out sometime around afternoon or later. Not somewhere far, just around the neighbourhood.

But the air is so hot, plus the kitchen is busy. Ah, my mother fried small fishes (something like anchovies… perhaps). The smell is strong, so can’t close the windows and doors. Made me want to go to my room if just I still had my notebook with me.

That goes on until night. Well, I do had time to browse around, looking at advertisement in Youtube for example and Digg some stuffs. Especially liked the Sprint Now network ads (specifically, the part about people leaving their cell phones in the same taxi), and HP Touchsmart PC’s ads.

Later at night, my mother asked if I want to go out to the book store. She want to look for a book her sister asked about. It’s about medical benefits of a certain plant, which in my opinion sounds suspicious. A plant with hundreds of benefits explained in way that sounds like a miracle drug from MLM sales who’s only intention is gaining downline and getting richer.

I hasn’t bought the batch of comic books I followed either. Time flies there. I spent time reading local published books about terrarium. To some disappointment, most deals with open case terrariums instead of the sealed case version. Come to think of it, I did saw more of those plants in fishbowls or glasses.

Time flies in the book store. After browsing for books, we go for a little groceries, in which during the long queue for the register, my brother made a phone call asking when we’ll be back home because there’s a blackout.

Picture totally unrelated.

Today when I went back rather late from work, I’ve just realized that they had cleaned up the small workshops at the side of the Slipi bridge.

It’s main one of the junction overpass bridges in west Jakarta area. At both side of the bridge are smaller street. At the side that goes to the north, there are many small businesses, mostly wood workers and house demolition workers. Those workshops are built on pedestrian and the part of streetside that’s supposed to be used for trees (well, the trees are still there). The workshop ranges from those using roofs, or simply using tarpaulin sheets as makeshift roofs.

Seen interesting thing happen on those roofs before. The trees planted on the streetside it mostly coniferous trees. The falling leaves collect on the roofs and with rain, got wet enough for smaller grasses to grow. Sometime when seeing them, I wondered if the root doesn’t penetrate the plastics.

So, why did they got cleaned by the officials anyway ? I don’t have the report or information, but I don’t think it’s because they don’t have any license to build there (it’s the pedestrian after all). Right behind them, a new building will be built, office building maybe. When I passed today, they almost finish a small building that seems to be the marketing office, all while there’s not even a single foundation pile can be seen in the vicinity.

This is the period between rain season to the dry season, or at least how it should be in longer observation time. While in the shorter period, this morning is really cloudy. The sky are mostly grey.

Second point are swallows. Not really sure, swallow, sparrow or anything, I just remember glimpse of crescent shaped wings and forked tail when they flew past above me, luckily with no drop charges.

I’m not an observer, so maybe I’m just oblivious to the fact that this could happened everyday and I just paid attention today. But there are a lot of these birds flying around the trees on the pedestrian, at least more than I usually realized.

Well, even though the sky is cloudy, it’s still hot in the bus. The lady sitting next to me doesn’t want to open the window. The road to office is also congested as usual.

When I added Fotolog web activity, I actually want to try doing it one photo per day. Even so. it’s not that easy to do as not every day of routinity I could find something to take. Well, sometimes it’s in the middle of the way to work or back home. Taking bus, I can’t just stop there and starts taking pictures.

But the last two days is different. I took the picture, and uploading it to somewhere else too, totally forgot to post the photo there. (￣_￣ i)

Another story from yesterday. Went to friend’s birthday party and we all had Japanese style barbeque, all you can eat.

After the lunch, my stomach doesn’t feel so good. Not really the first time, so I guess this adds on to my list growing of foods I’m unable to digest well. (｡＞0＜｡)

Some brochure I got when spending a quarter of my weekend in the local computer shopping mall.

Maybe this opinion is too soon, and there would be better timing during the local computer sales event in mid-June.

Notebook these days are dominating sales events more than desktop computer components. The front stage of major brand resellers’ stands are filled with notebook computer.

Does this means the (shouldn’t be put on your) laptop computers are becoming more popular than desktop? Just from the stand, that might not be totally true.

From my own experience ever since Junior High (maybe late elementary school), branded computer is not popular around here. This also made me surprised when hearing story from friend or article that in America, many peoples bought their computer in supermarket (IT specialized or hypermarket).

How do we buy computers? Well, I usually check component specs and made my list. Peoples who know better will have better thought list. Those without IT interest that deep will either ask for recommendation or select from list of setup from computer stores, which they can then customize as needed.

That’s the strong point. Buyer can make their list and compare price from shop to shop, looking for the cheapest offer and then build the computer somewhere. There’s also flexibility that the buyer can negotiate, lowering their specs to fit in the budget and upgrade it later day.

That’s not all. Branded PC had their bad reputation too. These are the stereotypes that I heard of.

• Brand cost, just like the issue Microsoft raised these days against Mac. Compared to custom build PCs, branded PC is believed to have brand cost, higher profit margin. So, branded = expensive.
• Difficulties to upgrade. For example, when I’m younger, I used to believe, IBM desktop computer can only be upgraded with certain branded components. In the other hand, using custom built computer, I can upgrade my computer to better component later as I need and could afford.
• The official service centre is impersonal and slow.

The last point is important. Rather than sending computer to official service centre, users would usually send it to their trusted computer shop to be repaired. In that case, the cost paid for official warrantee is a waste. Other issue is that, by then, a lot of computers are using pirated copy of Windows and other software. In company, the same thing happens. Rather than official support, internal IT division is preferred to handle technical problems.

In those respect, custom vs. branded is like comparing flexibility of PC and Mac’s hardware.

In such market, rather than showing branded desktops, they’d better focus on place they have no competition, notebook (after all, no custom build notebook yet). But why did notebook become more popular these days? Notebook is definitely more expensive, and its components can’t be upgraded (except memory and hard drive).

• Media. Notebook computers are presented in media, such as talk shows or news. In fact, rather than scripts, I usually sees news announcers in private TV station using notebook PC. Same way as how it’s believed that the usage of Blackberry device by artists in drama shows made it popular among teens as lifestyle and status symbol devices.
• Lifestyle that become more active outside home, such as in shopping malls. This is added with the more common presence of free wi-fi hotspot.
• Campus that promotes usage of notebook by students for e-learning. But from my own experience, and my brother’s, this is usually more about the campus’ prestige rather than student productivity, to claim that they practiced ‘e-learning’.
• Design and practicality. With the price lowering, even before netbook, notebook popularity has rise. This is just my assumption, peoples starts to don’t want to worry about building a Frankenstein PC.
  Why do they choose notebook than desktop? Other than the smaller size and portability and the lifestyle issue, notebook doesn’t have custom built device that made it’s price looks ugly :P

Again, that’s my assumption only because I didn’t do any investigation of market.

Went to check on my notebook today. It’s still under repair (or repair queue). I also talked to the owner of the computer store, if I could sell the notebook and buy new one with discounted price. In the end, I planned on getting the cheaper older model Tx2600 than Tx2. The largest difference seems to be multi-touch driver, which I doubt will use often more than the active touch screen (plus I prefer the older model’s imprint). According to early calculation, would take quite some time to return the money to my limited saving.

That’s not including other list of to buy, such as Windows 7, Palm Pre, and an external hard disk for archiving of my downloaded old files.

After that, and lunch, went back. But then, I think I’ll go to the movie, throwing away “bad luck”. Somehow, I picked Solstice instead of Angel&Demon, bad choice. Luckily not that scary, although I think I’ll hallucinate a bit about the mud black girl (the reason I know I shouldn’t watch horrors).

Oh, just forget that. The time the movie finished is just right. After I go to the toilet and saw the view outside from the window, I quickly go to the parking for an unobstructed view of the sunset. Found another nice spot to view it. Maybe next time I’ll try from the other place too. Really, the wide view from that parking lot today, I like the clouds formation and the colouring This is right after the red sky right ? When green colours starts to came out.

Other interesting thing I found is a small book kiosk at the corner. It just opened recently I guess, never saw that before. The kiosk sells western books, in English. Although all wrapped, some looks like old book (which would be difficult to find in book store). The price is quite reasonable too, all is under €5. Probably they have classic works as well as sci-fi novels too ?

Just when I arrived back home, my mother is going to the airport to pick up a relative just coming back from Malaysia. I followed straight, less time alone with my dad is better. We even get a chance to go around, because the person we pick up want to stay in my aunt’s place.

When all’s over, had a dinner with my mother in the Sunter’s street side vendors. The view is reminiscent of Jayakarta street’s vendors that we, a whole family, used to go when I’m younger. Almost all the vendors sell Chinese food. Not authentic Chinese mainland food, but mostly adapted version by descendants of Chinese immigrants living in many part of Indonesia, especially Sumatra and Borneo island.

Got the chance to go to the basement parking of that mall and finally took this picture. I don’t know what door it is, maybe just a storage room. But this decoration is the thing that caught my attention. Why is it put there ? Is it authentic ? Perhaps, the builders found this cheap and put it for decoration, after all, just the basement parking. Or maybe they bought an old door with the decoration intact and use it there ?

The flash is too bright and I took a bad angle so most details are lost, especially the upper part. The centre piece has picture that I think depicted Hercules fighting with the Nemea Lion.

So, why am I going there anyway ?

Continuing yesterday’s incident, I brought my notebook to the shop that I bought it. Maybe they know how to fix it, or at least bring it to the service centre (I had day job, so no chance to go there). From the initial research, they say it’s busted, the motherboard. Replacing it would be costly. Another alternative is selling this one and buy a new one after fixing. It would even cost more. Well, I planned on getting a Pavilion tx2z after Windows 7 is released. I guess I’ll try getting it earlier.

The other side of it is that my current income-expense figure is not in any case pretty. My promotion to permanent employee and raise is still several months away. Crediting from family member might be possible, but I felt like bolting chain to my neck linking to my dad’s hand, don’t want that.

First one of May, that is. The plan is for lunch together, maybe steak or seafood.

A little change of plan is that we’ll be visiting friend who got appendicitis first. The gathering time is on 10:00, which I’m worried I’ll be late because I had to wait for the movie downloads to finish.

Passing at Grogol, the bridge (more exactly, there’s canal flowing under part of the street) is clean today, no merchants on the pedestrian. They’re also making a cleaning of the canal from trashes using a kind of bamboo raft. The raft is long, reaching out to both side of the canal. On it, the workers push the raft, taking with them the floating trashes. Only two workers, and it seems like a very tiring work. Seems like the local government doesn’t want to give out the budget for cleaning the canal using specialized boat or heavy equipments.

Another interesting views are peoples (homeless?) who slept on… bridge? Not sure about the term, but it’s the bridge made for services like electricity, water or gas to go across body of water like river or canals. Of course, it’s not supposed to have peoples on it, too dangerous, but not like peoples care. When I’m in junior high school and go to badminton training in the sport hall in front of out residential complex (now closed and turned to the more profitable shopping mall), we also used to cross the canal using bridge for water pipe. Now it’s already gone, replaced by simple bamboo bridge and then plastered with cement.

I kind of regretted not taking pictures of the two.

Had a can of mocha coffee, and later while waiting for the rain to stop in the cafe at the hospital’s ground floor, another mocha coffee. The second one is too sweet for my taste. Luckily there’s free water to counter it.

The rain, from indoor, other than the heavy falls and occasional thunders, actually looks pretty. Outdoor is another thing. There’s a little trace of smell from the canal (or sewer) in the air, unpleasant smell that is.

Well, a little change in plan, we had our lunch in the other branch of that family restaurant chain (well, and the one in KG, once). Not protesting, really. I think I never tried the food in another branch at all. Besides, when younger, I went there several times with my family too, so there’s some memory, although the place has been renovated, extended, and we never really came often enough to be regular customer.

Talking about nostalgic memories with families, when driving me home, we got redirected by the police, maybe for taking lane too much to the right. We passed the old town area, Gajah Mada street. In our younger days, which is late 80s and early 90s, we often go there too with our family for weekend. Maybe watching movies, eating street snacks, or just went for a drive with family in the night (which I fell asleep quick with the waving of the car and music from the radio).

Another nice spot on the route is the area near the old fishing harbour. The area has old Dutch colonization era warehouses, but that’s not all. The street is wide enough, with canal to one side. Other than one apartment building, all buildings in the area is not taller than two or three floors, so the sky is clearly visible from there. Not as perfect as in an open field, but better than most place in the city. (^-^)

PS: on the bad side, my notebook is not booting up, it doesn’t even show the usual booting screen. Tomorrow I’ll bring it to the shop where I bought it (and probably asked their help to bring it to HP service centre). But in case the content can’t be saved, I think I’m installing 7 there. Or if I actually had the money, maybe upgrade it too..

With the release of Windows 7 RC, I want to try going forward and move to 64 bit edition. Some of the experience in the installation.

First, the download took time. 3 GB, took half a day with internet here (yes, I’m looking at you all in who download it either with relatively more reliable internet or downloading through local connections). Second one, I also downloaded 32 bit edition for my friends with older CPUs.

The second download is a bad experience. I put my computer to auto shut down when I think the download has finished (I’m in office). But in fact it hasn’t and I can’t resume the file afterward.

Go to the installation step. It’s quick! Faster than I expected. This time, I also didn’t format the wrong partition! But to my surprise, my video storage drive is signed as system partition. This seems to be causing trouble too. After the installation is finished, the partition is not mounted by Windows. I tried mounting it using Computer Management snap-on, and after a restart I get an error message saying there’s no Bootmgr. I’ll try it again tonight and switch the SATA cable.

If things gone for the worse, I’ll buy a new external hard drive tomorrow. Need one of that anyway, to store away my already burned files that I still hesitate to delete. NAS would be better, but still beyond my budget nor income.

Using 64 bit… more or less I didn’t feel much difference at all. But that’s several hours impression, still had much customization to be made, and looking for 64 bit version of my favourite applications.