Victim, No More...Victorious over Vista...

Yup, problem solved with the help of a Microsoft Software Research Engineer named Kevin! Service Pack 1 for Vista is installed--albeit on a clean (new) harddrive. Evidently if there is any corruption or incompatibility in any program on the harddrive where Vista resides, the Vista service pack 1 is so sophisticated that it identifies any discrepancies in files, corruptions, or needed updates, and refuses to install unless everything in the original Vista is in tip-top shape. When it does finally install (even when it unsuccessfully attempts to install) service pack 1 saves all documents, program data and files, and windows files and settings in a file called c:\windows.old. This is very good.

One drawback of the Vista SP1 is that if you attempt to install it on a harddrive running Vista and the install fails, it is not possible to reverse the failed install. That is not good.

Since I had several failed installs, I have several files, windows.old, windows. old1, windows.old 2, on the harddisk, but the harddisk is now unusable--until I transfer the old files to another harddrive and reformat the harddrive and do a clean install. Very, very, not good!

But in view of all the hassles, once SP1 is successfully installed, wow, the speed of the whole computer improves, the files are renamed and moved to more logical places, and unnecessary folders are eliminated and others are moved to more user-friendly locations. This is good.

Unfortunately, some the software program will not operate properly if a needed file or folder has been renamed or moved by Vista SP1. It is necessary to either reinstall, recreate a missing folder, or find the moved folder or file and copy and paste it into the correct spot. For example, I had to create a folder called c:\temp, since the install program for software I just purchased required the folder--which I did have prior to installing Vista SP1. Hmmmmmm....that is not too good.

But, I must say that I am impresed with the absolutely great support I received from Microsoft--about nine hours of expert assistance over the phone for free. The usual cost of such tech support is steep--approximately $599.99 per hour! Sheesch!

Microsoft is very well aware of how complicated it is to install Vista SP1 and dedicates a free tech support site to resolve any problems. First I used online tech support, but later, received phone calls from Microsoft technicians and research engineers who assisted me in resolving the failed installs and helped me located needed files and documents. The tech support was superb, the explanations, easy to follow, and the customer service was great! The follow-up from the technical staff was first-rate and I certainly was made to feel an integral part of the solution and that it was their pleasure to resolve any issues. That was Very, Very good!

Vista SP1....Yikes!

Well, all was well, until I tried to install Vista SP1 update--actually, it was Windows Automatic Update that insisted on my downloading and installing Vista SP1. All is not well in my little cyberspace--believe me. The install kept hanging and hanging in the same spot. Got an 0xc01a001d error; when I restarted, would continue to hang in the same spot. I checked out some help forums--yes, help forums are definitely a must for any community, technical or not.
From a help forum, I got an invaluable link to a special Microsoft SP1 help site. I went to the site for help and I have been working for the last two hours on trying to restore my computer and backing out of the SP1 install. I am a little concerned as the hours of operation for Sunday help are almost over. I don't want to be left "hanging" like SP1.

I must say that the chat help that I have been receiving has been reassuring and very helpful--except that restoring a system takes a lot of time and patience. The chat agent, Arun L., has assured me that SP1 can and will be installed on my computer! I hope that Arun is correct as I have been trying to get this up and running many times--but to no avail. I want SP1 as I have heard that it is infinitely faster than the original Vista--many fixes and security enhancements, too. Well, wish me luck!!! and I will let you all know what the status of my currently crashed desktop is--in the future!!!!

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Back again, because the Microsoft agent was unable to resolve the problems so I have a referral to a Microsoft Engineer tomorrow between 10am and 12fpm to try to resolve the issue. In the meantime, I am supposed to try to run the original Vista DVD through its paces to repair or restore my system--which didn't work when I was talking with the agent, but might work now that I have unlimited time to fool with trying some solutions.

The whole experience struck my however as a wonderful example of expert to student community learning interaction and I was able to save the chat for reference--which is quite a dramatic improvement over just jotting down notes and trying to pay attention at the same time. If you would like to see a copy of the chat dialogue, view it here.

Ooooh, Ooooh, Ooooh...Another Cool Tool....

I just found another cool tool for creating word clouds from the Wordle.net website. This tool allows you to take any text copy, url of a document or site and create a word cloud from the most prominent words in the text or website. Then, you can either link to the wordle.net word cloud, or you can screen capture the resulting wordle graphic for use in websites, text, or for other purposes. You must credit Wordle.net under the Creative Commons license, but that is definitely appropriate for the free use of this cool tool. Here is a word cloud that was created from this site, which I snipped from wordle.net and have inserted here.

Graphic created using Wordle.net

Other options are available to the user on Wordle.net, such as, code which directly links the graphic to a web page. This is an example of using the embedded code:

A word cloud created on Wordle.net from embedded code.

As you can see, the embedded version is more degraded and pixelated than the captured graphic; I would suggest a snip, save as jpg, and insert method for a better resolution word cloud graphic. Try it; you might like it! :)

Collaboration elaboration....

Wowee! I just checked out a few collaboration tools since I am going to need to collaborate on writing a research paper for this course with another student. The first tool I have looked at is Acrobat.com, which includes a suite of collaboartion tools. Collaborate on documents using Adobe Buzzword, save documents online or export in many common formats; present using ConnectNow, which allows real-time chat, conference call-in, audio-video presentation and more; share documents with others via Share; save your created files or uploaded documents online for easy access and sharing. A free sign-up is all that is required to start using Adobe's online collaboration suite.

Another tool that could work for my collaborative project is Hylighter.com, which is a free online document collaboration tool. Documents can be imported from my computer, website url, and created using the java wordprocessing tool included in Hylighter.com. Invitations for collaborating on documents can be sent from within Hylighter.com. The tool makes collaborative editing and commenting on a document easy. Exporting is available as PDF, DOC, and HTML formats. A free sign-up is required to use this tool.

I love all the online tools that are available to everyone to use!