My Office PC Gets the Windows 7 Treatment

This morning a guy kept the elevator door open for me as I got off at the 10th. It was nice of him and I thought I'd seen him somewhere before but it was useless putting effort to figure out because I'm just like that in real life; unable to relate to people around me - the classic, true-blue anti-social.

I reached my cube and as I waited for my old PC to boot up, I noticed that my IP phone had one of those buttons arranged neatly in column lit up red. A missed call. When I checked the list, I saw a L** B**** register. He was the guy at the elevator - the IT dep't guy. No wonder he was familiar! He's one of them guys who take care of our PC quagmires here at work, coming up to the 10th occasionally.

And I needed him this morning, I finally remembered. He was supposed to upgrade my PC to Windows 7. There's this Windows 7 "campaign" at the office and I volunteered to be one of the first ones to upgrade because I was model employee.

That's a lie. I had actually thought I was gonna be given a shiny new CPU unit but to my utter disappointment, he just told me to back-up my stuff (they weren't much, just a bunch of Word files) in the USB flashdrive he lent me and then asked me, quite threateningly so at that, for the last time if I really was sure I got everything I needed because there was no turning back. I said yes. Well, condescendingly. Were we upgrading my OS or jumping off a cliff?

Anyhow, the next thing he did got me really frustrated. He just restarted my PC and booted off from the same USB flashdrive where I backed up my files in. 

He's simply restoring an image of a standard Windows 7 Enterprise installation on my PC. Yes, that same, old, bloody PC who BSOD'd on me some time ago.

No new PC.

I had to grab a cup of paltry unsweetened café latte from the pantry's Nescafé dispenser to help me accept the fact. After about 40 minutes plus the time I spent pigging out for lunch with officemates, I came back to Windows 7 login screen.

Nothing new. At home we've been using Windows 7 since it came it out in Beta. But and idea struck me:

Why not check the Windows Experience Index?

My PC (which I'm gonna live with as long as I continue working where I work now) specs:

Intel Core 2

2 GB RAM (not sure but it's most probably DDR2)

80 GB HDD

Intel Q965/Q963 graphics chip

Here's its score:

Ok, it's unfair to say this, given that my HP Mini 311 runs Ion (which is same old Romeo that is NVidia 9400M, just by "any another name") and my office PC runs an Intel Q965 chip. But my HP Mini 311 is able to hold up its own with 2.3.

Not too shabby, I dare say.

Fueling Geeky Aspiration

Geeks will always be geeks. I'm no Alfred Nobel Prize winner nor a beauty queen but I do console myself with claiming geek-hood or that have forced myself into that demographic, at least, though real members of it may protest. But do let's move on, bear with me and just accept that, in fact, I am a geek; I have something to feel excited about today.

Yes, new stuff!

Today, I just got me this:

2GB Kingston DDR3 1066 /PC-8500 SoDIMM

Actually it's the same memory module sold at a local PC/electronic store, Villman and I quote:

FEATURES:

JEDEC standard 1.5V ± 0.075V Power Supply
VDDQ = 1.5V ± 0.075V

533MHz fCK for 1066Mb/sec/pin
8 independent internal bank
Programmable CAS Latency: 6,7,8,9
Posted CAS
Programmable Additive Latency: 0, CL - 2, or CL - 1 clock
Programmable CAS Write Latency(CWL) = 7(DDR3-1066)
8-bit pre-fetch
Burst Length: 8 (Interleave without any limit, sequential with starting address “000” only), 4 with tCCD = 4
which does not allow seamless read or write [either on the fly using A12 or MRS]
Bi-directional Differential Data Strobe
Internal(self) calibration : Internal self calibration through ZQ pin (RZQ : 240 ohm ± 1%)
On Die Termination using ODT pin
Average Refresh Period 7.8us at lower then TCASE 85°C, 3.9us at 85°C < TCASE . 95°C
Asynchronous Reset
PCB : Height 1.180” (30.00mm), double sided component

PERFORMANCE:

CL(IDD) 7 cycles

Row Cycle Time (tRCmin) 50.63ns (min.)

Refresh to Active/Refresh Command Time (tRFCmin) 110ns

Row Active Time (tRASmin) 37.5ns (min.)

Power 1.560 W (operating)

UL Rating 94 V - 0

Normal Operating Temperature 0o C to 85o C

Storage Temperature -55o C to +100o C

To be perfectly honest, much of the details above I don't understand; just "blahs" ya know, and before you ask, nope, they didn't pay me for advertising. In fact I think I'm gonna ruin their good name with this post rather than promote the well-fare of their sales figures this quarter.

As you can see, the same module sells for Php 2,999 (around USD$ 66.31 - exorbitant, I know, but that's reality).

But it's not from Villman I got my new stick of 2GB DDR3 goodness: I got it from a nice lady who has got a small business in selling PC parts on-line and I only needed to shell out: Php 1,700 for an authentic Kingston.

Too bad for Villman who ain't gonna pocket that extra Php 1,200 on my expense, no sireee!

I'm excited to test it. Will post how it goes.

Proof of Concept: Microsoft Exchange

I think I'm brewing a flu right now so I went MIA from the office today.

But being the paranoid that I am, I just gotta check my e-mail. Usually I do this via OWA or Outlook Web App. Our company has recently moved to Outlook, leaving Lotus Notes behind. I say rightly so, I used to hate Lotus Notes and over the years, have found myself missing it. Yes, that's how bad things have gotten; I've come to love a horrendous app. 

So I answered some fresh e-mails that just came in my OWA inbox while I watched, or rather listened to, Bertrand Serlet's introduction of Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Yeah, that's how much of an Apple fangirl I am, thank you, my equally Apple fanboy of an older cousin, my kuya Jay, will be proud. 

And then I came to this point of the keynote where Microsoft Exchange support in Snow Leopard was discussed. I already know this to be a fact but hadn't quite tried it. So I did.

And it works! Good thing that we're using Exchange 2007 at work.

Proof of Concept of MS Exchange working on Snow Leopard:

Setting up my account in Mail was a breeze

Now that meeting last Friday is haunting me indeed...

Contacts in Address Book are loading. or so it seems...

This is one very sexy-looking office work environment, I'd say. Although I don't count on Address Book to be able to load the bajillion contacts our Exchange server has.