Speaking of updates, have shelved my education in Ruby on Rails for now. I have stepped back and decided to learn PHP so I can then move on to working with Drupal and Joomla, and hopefully making modules. Now you might say, “Why keep the www.coreyonrails.com name then?”, and to reply, I would simply say, “Because I paid for the domain.”. I have no reason to let the domain go, they’re cheap enuff to keep around in the event I want to use it. I do own several other domain names as well. People always think they have a domain someone might want to buy from them for millions later on, I am no different. I know it’ll never happen, but I liked the ones I bought, and maybe one day I’ll use them.

Well I am off for now, head on over to www.coreytess.net to check out some awesome photos from my RC racing, and whatever else I am up to.

I started by downloading the Windows Easy Transfer utility. It was a quick download and install, and is pretty simple to use. It’s purpose is to make a backup, proprietary .MIG format, of your “important” data. By default this includes any user directories on the system, plus the shared folders. The netbook doesn’t have a whole lot going on, other than a small iTunes library so the scan portion of the utility was pretty quick. It found around 6.8 GB if data to backup, the afforementioned user directory was small, but the iTunes folder linked to from “My Music” was around 5GB alone. The interface lets you customize the backup, remove some folders add others, right down to files. The next step in the process is to tell the utility where you want to put the backup. I was provided 3 options, USB Easy Transfer Cable, Network Connection, External Drive or USB Drive. There is a 4th option to use a CD/DVD burner, which I believe was not shown as I did not have one attached. I don’t have an “Easy Transfer Cable”, I didn’t know such a thing existed honestly. My plan was to send the backup to my desktop across my home network. When I tried to that however I found the program did not allow anything other than an IP, and it did not like me trying to access the share for some reason. This could be my fault, my experience with networking between XP and Vista has been nothing short of a nightmare. With that option exhausted I decided to cheat. I mapped a network drive to the share, and put the backup there. It was no big deal, just a little odd that the “Network Location” option did not seem to like the share. Once I selected that, the program started doing it’s thing, and about 45 minutes later I had a 6 GB .MIG file on my computer. I would like to have seen some sort of compression on this, and maybe the program would run better if it made the backup, then transferred it to the storage location, but I am not Microsoft, I am sure they had they reason for doing it this way ;) With the backup safely on my desktop, I deviated from the Microsoft steps. I made my own backups as well. I copied basically the same thing the Transfer tool did, but as I have never used this tool, and know how backups can fail, I wanted to be sure I did not lose my girlfriend’s music. Girlfriend aggro is never a good thing, even more so when I ran an upgrade she never asked for :)

Now that I had my two backups, mine and Microsoft’s, I moved on to the fun part, the upgrade itself. Now anyone paying attention to Windows 7 knows you cannot upgrade from XP to 7 directly, or as Microsoft puts it, “in place”. I also had the challenge of how to run a DVD when the netbook has no DVD drive, or any drive for that matter. I was slightly dissapointed to find a TechNet article stating that the downloaded versions of Windows 7 can be converted to an ISO to run from a USB drive. I don’t understand why a purchased physical copy does not include access to a downloaded copy as well, but that’s another rant in itself. I first tried to run the upgrade from the DVD drive in my desktop, over the network. Not a great idea to begin with, but it did not work. It would start ok, and then the network transfer would take too long and time it out. So I began my search for a way to do this with a USB flash drive. For once I was surprised to find that Microsoft helped out, and they had a nice video on how to do this. The video is short and to the point, and even has written steps below, Installing Win7 using a USB stick. I watched the video and read the handful of steps, only to find this was beyond simple. No need for any software to make the USB stick bootable. Just format the stick fresh, to be safe, and then copy the entire contents from the upgrade disc over to the USB stick. I followed the steps, put the USB stick into the netbook, and booted to it with no problems.

The upgrade itself ran with no problems, overall the loading, copying, and installing took around 20 minutes by my best guess. After that I logged into Windows 7 on the netbook, and was greeted with everything, minus the integrated webcam, working perfectly. I’m having a little trouble finding a driver for the webcam in Windows 7, but that’s fine. I’ll take 1 missing driver for something nonessential over missing every driver like in a previous upgrade, Vista. Its also not Microsoft’s fault anyways, it’s the manufacturer, and its not a major issue to begin with. Windows 7 did a great job of picking up my wireless network with no problems, using its own drivers and not a third party driver/software package. The display went to its native resolution without any issues, and everything looked great. I was even surprised to find Aero running on a netbook. Say what you, will but if you’re using a GUI, it better be nice to look at, and Aero is very nice to look at.

After the initial setup, I was stumped on how to install the Windows Easy Transfer tool on Windows 7, so I could move the backup back onto the netbook. I looked online and felt rather stupid when I found it is included in Windows 7 (Start->Accessories->System Tools). So I started the program, and it asked me if this was my old computer or my “new” computer. I selected the obvious, and then chose the type of storage I had chosen when making the backup. Next I browsed realized I needed to remake the mapped drive, and after doing so browsed to the backup with no issues. The restore took another 45 minutes give or take to complete, and when it was done, it was as if I had done an “in place” upgrade. All settings were applied again, even wallpapers and user icons.

The one thing the transfer tool does not do, and it clearly states this, is the Program Files directory. I don’t expect it to, otherwise Microsoft might as well just take the time and write the upgrade to cover Windows XP as a normal upgrade. This is where an article I read last week came in handy. I ran across something from one of the tech blogs, sorry I forgot which one, about a site called ninite.com. This site is simple, it has a bunch of check boxes for the most commonly used free programs such as browsers, plugins, anti-virus, imaging software (like Paint.Net or GIMP), and a whole bunch of others. You check what you want in your installer, and then download it. Now this isn’t just a zip file containing a bunch of EXEs to run. It is a real installer one click installer. After the download it runs through and installs each application you selected one by one. The idea is ingenious. It takes one of the most tedious parts of getting a new computer, and upgrade, a reinstall, whatever, and makes it simple as can be. I chose the usual, Firefox, Flash, Adobe Reader, Java, iTunes, and 7zip. They even go so far as to have options for Evernote, Filezilla, Notepadd++, the thing is great. I managed to do something that usually takes me an hour or more to complete, in 20 minutes tops. I really recommend using this for anyone who has does this type of thing regularly, and may not have the convenience of some sort of image software.

So now everything is installed, Windows 7 is great, I like what I see so far. The new taskbar is fantastic, and so much more functional than it has been. Tomorrow my copy of Professional shows up, and we’ll see if this upgrade will be as simple. I am upgrading this computer from Vista Ultimate 64-bit to Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. You might ask why Pro and not Ultimate again, the answer is simple. The upgrade for Pro, at the half price pre-order special, is only $100. The upgrade for Ultimate was something like $220, there is no discount. I don’t even need Ultimate. I honestly don’t even know what the hell it has over Professional to begin with, except the AppLocker thing, which I have no use for really. The only reason I have Ultimate is because I participated in the Windows Feedback Panel from a couple years ago, and got a free copy of Vista Ultimate. I expect the same thing as the Xp to 7 upgrade when I do it. Because I am “downgrading” the OS, it is not a normal upgrade again, and I will have to do the same thing I did for XP, just on a much bigger scale. My backup file from the Easy Transfer tool is in the 60 GB range. I am less worried about this, if I lose the data on the C drive I could care less, I have a hefty D and E that have the important stuff.

I’ll be sure to update when that’s done in case there are any surprises. In the meantime, check out ninite.com, seriously, great idea, great tool.

The themes that seem to be more up to date are the eBusiness, ePhoto, eVid, eGamer, and Coldstone themes. They are the nicest looking, in my opinion. The other themes look just as nice, but I haven’t worked with most of them, and a couple I tried look like they are waiting to be updated to 2.8, or my local test environment is broken, could be either really.

The themes all have a read me on how to install them, and any required plugins, and Photoshop files to work with if you choose to customize anything. The site also has a large forum for everything from questions, to suggestions, and a place to show off any customizations to the themes.

Once you get the theme installed you’ll want to go and take a look at the options for the theme. Currently they are working on making their options piece for the themes easier to use, and nicer looking.

Here you can see the options for the eBusiness theme, they look nice, and are pretty straightforward in what they do.

Most of the theme is controlled through the options, some of what you can put on your homepage, or use for thumbnails is done through the use of custom fields, a common thread amongst themes like these, and the rest is setting the links and some teaser type text. The on thing I can say here is the use of IDs for things on the homepage, specifically with eBusiness theme, and a couple others. I don’t use the querystring param setup for my permalinks, it hurts SEO (yes even on a tiny site I think about SEO). I use permalinks formatted with the month/day/year/title, or something along those lines. I don’t like having to dig to find the ID of something to have it on the homepage. I guess either Wordpress could make these IDs more readily available, which may already be possible but I am not seeing it. It would be better if the theme could pick the ID, or maybe have something to browse the content you already have in the site, and it can pull the ID itself.

Once those items are setup, the last thing left to do really is replace the stock logo with your own. This was one other point I was kind of disappointed in. Throughout the theme you can set the URL for an image for the “About Me” section, or for many other items like ads. However with the logo, the only thing I can find is to change the name of the file in the header file, or to name your custom logo the same as the stock one. It would have been nice to have an option for this in the theme. Again, this is a tiny thing, and anyone who knows Wordpress should be able to manage this on their own.

All in all, these themes are fantastic, you get a lot for a tiny price tag really. I highly suggest taking a look at the site, see if there is something you like for your own site, and take the plunge. The forums are active with the admins, so help is always easily found, and they are beautiful themes, with the most important part, the right price.

I had spent a lot of time looking at other “premium” themes, and theme clubs. What I found was a lot of generic layouts, or worse the same layout repeated with slightly different colors or fonts. Most of these themes alone, cost more than the price of the many options you get with Elegant Themes. Hop on over and take a look, and check my other site where I’ll be using on of their themes soon. Now I just have to make up my mind.

Dreamhost has a lot of stuff built into their web panel that just makes life easier, and they allow me to manage my domains, ASO does not. The domain thing was huge, it allowed me to setup Google Apps for the new domain in a flash. It’s all little stuff I guess, when you’re talking about little sites it all is little really, but it is nice nonetheless.

So either way, the new site can be seen here, coreytess.net. Let me know what you think, either here or there.

I’m working slowly, I managed to pick up a new hobby over the summer, Remote Control Cars/Trucks, and it has been consuming a lot of time, and to my girlfriend’s dismay, money. Great hobby but it can turn into a money pit when you start racing like I have. I’m sure I can make a whole post on the racing and what I’ve learned and done and so on, maybe I will tomorrow. Anyways, once the weather turns to the cold stuff we enjoy so much up here in New England, I’m planning on going full speed into the rails version of this site. I’ve dug myself a bit of a hole with it already using Wordpress for the interim, as I will now have to write some sort of import for the existing post and content on the site now. All in all it should be nice once done. I’m not sure about a design, but I am sure I’ll try and go simple and keep it along the lines of what is here now.

Work has been busy, I’ve been expanding my programming skills a great deal in the .Net world. I have made some amazing pieces of functionality for our customers. It might be my opinion but I have no shame in taking pride in the things I have made lately. I honestly was not aware of how much I knew and could get done at my previous job. I was not allowed time or opportunity to really program like I do now, and I am glad I made the change. You can take a look at the work we’ve been doing from our corporate site, Websolutions Technology Inc..

For anyone interested my girlfriend does have website finally, we got her setup on Dreamhost after a deal I could not resist. They offered $6.95 for a full year of unlimited hosting. So I set her up with a Wordpress blog like mine, and now she blogs about her quilting and crafting, and she links to her Etsy site where she sells what she makes. Feel free to take a look, http://lovejessicaalways.com.

Well off for now.

First was a blog called ThemeGrrl, as the name and title suggests it is for more feminine themes, but since this was my girlfriend’s crafting site, that’s a good thing. She seems to have a lot of posts for different styles of themes, and is pretty well put together. She uses the same host as the new one I used for my girlfriend, and has posted about them a few times as well. 

Next was SimplyWP, the site is not too bad, they have some nice themes to look at, although I wish they would put a preview pic in the blog post itself. I’m a huge fan of free themes, it’s a great way for people with the skills to put together a small portfolio, even better if they get used. There is also really no need to pay for a lot for theme for your personal blog. I sometimes wonder how much business the “Premium” themes vendors get, if anyone of you is reading this, please feel free to give me a clue. I myself am completely incapable of designing anything, I just don’t have the creativity I guess, and I envy those who can. 

As always setting up the new site was a breeze, especially since most hosts have auto installers for Wordpress. I really like that I can crank out something simple and useable so fast, which still has the potential to become a decent site either with additional plugins, or by adding in another app to the host. If anyone needs some help with Wordpress I might be able to help, just ask away. If I don’t know the answer, I will gladly make up one that sounds good, just kidding.

So for now, I am off the freelance thing, as I am now a real employee again. If anyone wants to see some of the sites I work on, we have a client list on the Websolutions site. I obviously didn’t do them all, but I’ve worked on some of them. If your looking for a great Ektron Partner, I obviously would say they’re the ones now, but even before I worked with them, I would have said the same thing. 

I’m off to go read yet another book, this week it’s a collection of stories inspired by H.P. Lovecraft called “The Taint and other Novellas”. I highly recommend anything by Brian Lumley, who wrote these stories, and of course anything else from Lovecraft himself, along with the the other notable authors he inspired.

The CPU is an Intel Core i7 920. The speed is 2.67 GHz, which is slower than what it replaced, a 3.0 GHz P4, but in the long run there is no competition the i7 is a killer. The list of features is insane, level 3 cache, 4 real cores, unlike your Core 2 Quads and Core 2 Duos, etc… The 920 is the cheapest of the 3 CPUs out right now, and I can only imagine what the extreme is like if the low end is this great. 

The motherboard I used is an EVGA board, they only make 1 right now but here it is at Newegg, EVGA X58. I have always gone with Asus in the past, but this board said overclocking, and had better features, so I got it. I am impressed with what EVGA packages with the board. They give a nice big color diagram of the motherboard with everything explained, what connector is where, even the pin configurations. Even something small, like how the I/O plate for the case is padded on the back, instead of those razor like metal tabs on most plates, is appreciated. That padding did make getting the motherboard screwed into the case difficult, I had to really push it into place to get the screws in, but it’s worth it. They also included the usuall assortment of cables, 6 SATA, 1 round IDE, some molex to SATA power connectors, and two SLI connectors. One for just your “simple” SLI setup of two video cards, and a nice solid PCB with 6 connectors for a triple SLI. If only I had the income to support a triple SLI setup, and to be honest a need, which I still insist nobody truly has that need. The board is great, nice simple setup, bios is LOADED with options, and the appropriately named “E-LEET” utility makes overclocking and stat watching even easier. 

The hard drives are all Western Digital, one high speed 150GB VelociRaptor for the OS, and two Caviar 500GB drives for storage. I didn’t do RAID, I have my reasons and thats final. The drives are fast, but as stated above I need to figure out if I am truly abusing as they should be abused.

Lastly I got 6GB of DDR3 PC1600 RAM in a triple channel setup from OCZ. So far no complaints there, we’ll see how it goes with overclocking later on. 

I did not touch the video card yet, honestly I blew the money on the parts above mostly. So for now I am sticking with the gradually aging XFX GeForce 7900 GT. Soon to be replaced with an EVGA 9800 GTX+. Anyone interested in paying for somethign better, please email me. Just kidding ;)

So for now I would have to say the i7 is highly recommended, I know this wasn’t much of a review but this isn’t Toms Hardware. This whole upgrade is a massive leap in performance and technology from my P4 with 4GB of RAM and a single 250GB IDE hard drive running at a whopping 5400 RPM. 

Well off to bed for now, feel free to comment and give feedback, whoever is out there in the web world.

Which brings me to my second update for today, I am a free agent again. If you’ve looked at my resume you’ll notice my previous employment at Ektron Inc. has ended, and I have moved on to some contract work. I am new to the independent contractor world, but so far I am enjoying it. I am a little worried about handling the taxes for the first time like this, but I am sure my friends over at H&R Block or Jackson Hewitt will keep from being thrown to the wolves at the IRS.

Like I said above I am interested in freelance work so if you’re looking for some website development, drop me a line here. I am sure I can fit some time in between my other contracts. While I am not a designer, if only I had such talent and skill to do so, I know a great deal about web development. My main skills are mostly .Net, but I learn fast, and do have a decent amount of knowledge with PHP and of course RoR. Jump over to the about page and take a look at the resume, there is a portfolio on the way, maybe tomorrow or this weekend.

On a sidenote, anyone who has a blog should have Akismet, it’s been catching lots of spam on this little end of the interent, I can only imagine what it could do for a highly active blog. It’s a great plugin for Wordpress, and best of all free.

Apparently I am a dummy, and this book seems to be what I am looking for. It asnwers a lot of my questions about the hows and the whys, as well the all important wheres in Ruby on Rails. The book is great, written in an older version of RoR, but then again they all are. The differences between the older version the book uses and the current 2.1 version are minimal, thats a HUGE plus in my book. It minimizes the amount of time I spend trying to find the new methods, and keeps everything understandable. I recommend this book a lot if you’re trying to learn RoR.

So the theme is done, mostly, and it will be great when I am ready to implement it. That theme however is not going to be applied to this Wordpress version of the site, it will be used for the RoR version I am beginning work on (again). I have a much better idea of what I need to do, and what I want to do. As with any project I’ll start with the needs, and add in the wants when I am done. I am a firm believer in get the thing working, preferably well, before adding any new functionality. Some may differ on that sort of view, but I find the cause for that is something not based on a product’s, in this case site’s, best interests.

On a sidenote, I am trying to find some freelance sidework. As the bubble of our economy continues to collapse, I think more and more people will be looking for cheaper smaller projects to be completed to save time and cost. I would like to work on my portfolio, or lack of one currently. Please take a look at the resume, linked on my about page, and contact me if there is a fit.