Do I actually have to give props to Dell?

It seems I just might. First Dell took a stand last year (June 2007?) when they started selling XP again after Microshaft told them to only sell Vi$ta, now Dell has made a bolder move, saying the WILL sell XP after the June 30th M$ cut-off. Though I have no love for the trash they call hardware it is about time someone stood up to Redmond and said (in pure Network fashion), "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" If there is one thing M$ never understood, it is that the market doesn't just want the stuff you give it. The market will eventually demand what it wants. They copy other ideas poorly (Windoze, Zune, PocketPOS, etc.) and expect that people will want it because it says M$ on it. Vi$ta sucks guys, and the new service pack didn't help. It takes too much hardware to do too little, and costs corporations and institutions just too much money to upgrade incompatible equipment and software, so Dell comes to the rescue by continuing to sell XP so productivity and the bottom line can be saved. This also helps small businesses without the upgrade capital as well.
Really with SP3 and the new mini-laptop market (that just can't run Vi$ta), Redmond may likely have to extend support sales again (contrary to its own statements). But beating a dead horse has also always been another M$ trend. They continue to sell, change and repackage crap no one wants (Windoze CE, that damn paper clip). They should have given up on Vi$ta rather than continuing to throw R&D money at it hoping it would finally get done and work right. Now that they have thrown so much into it they can't give up, and want to force down the throats of a public that just doesn't want it. Give it up guys, Vi$ta is hated by many of the most loyal M$ users.
If you get a chance, check out the "Vista Failure Log": http://slashdot.org/~twitter/journal/177855
It also looks like NEC will offer XP after the cutoff:
http://slashdot.org/~twitter/journal/195462

What the hell happened to Boot Camp?

So I am now using a 17" MacBook Pro CoreDuo (yes an older one) running Leopard. I admit so for Boot Camp has not been a selling point for me. So far I'd just rather use Parallels or VMWare Fusion (I would recommend both products), but I figured with MacBook Pro I might want to take advantage of Hardware (like the video to play games), so I figured I'd install XP on Boot Camp. I got a black screen with an error about a missing file. I check the forums, and I tried all the suggestions, reformatting the Boot Camp partition, trying different XP discs, I even reformatted the Mac, tried a fresh install of Leopard. Still the same. Apple refused to support it after "the Windows installer started". A few days earlier I was asked about this problem by someone, but since I had never seen it before I didn't have answer. I still don't. I tried the Boot Camp beta under Tiger and it worked great (on a MacBook Core2Duo), but Boot Camp 2.0 under Leopard is, as fas as I'm concerned, is a complete failure. Or maybe it's just Windows.
Addendum: It seems the best fix is takes a lot of time and going back to the Tiger beta to get XP installed then upgrade to Leopard. It was a great beta.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5860087

Sorry for the delay...

The Random Tech Guy shall return shortly.

Vi$ta? No Thanks!

The Random Tech Guy doesn't not recommend Vista for anyone or for any application. He highly encourages avoiding it at all costs (use 2000, XP, Ubuntu Linux or best yet a Mac), and encourages others not to use or recommend Vista. He also helps people removes Vista from machines that shipped with it and upgrade to other legitimate operating systems.

Micro$oft Phone Home

Since the release of XP the one thing I can't understand it why a person who pays for an OS and runs it legitimately would use something that needs to phone home to prove it is real (and usually without your knowledge). Things like Windoze Product Aggravation and Windoze Genuine Validation (sorry no good pun for that one yet) are just sad. M$ says they are used to reduce piracy. Piracy hasn't decline. M$ claimed that the new "technology" in Vi$ta has helped curb piracy. Blogger and users alike shot shot back that it is because no one wants to pirate Vi$ta. As usual Microshaft needs a reality check. Vi$ta is s@#t in a box with the M$ logo. I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy, and now that it like XP it not only wants initial validation, it wants another every 180 days, and more if you want to download certain products. The system is so convoluted and confusing that I even found others trying to get to the bottom on the phenomenon.
These new "technologies" make the products more expensive, since M$ has to waste R&D money on this crap. It also takes up your bandwidth. That's right every time it does a check it is using bandwidth you likely pay for. Why isn't M$ giving all legitimate customers who are victims of their back-orifice like tools a rebate for using their bandwidth? Why doesn't M$ just trust their user to manage their own machines, licenses and software?
Worst of all this is like an illegal wire tap. Though claims are made that the validation is "straight forward", it often does so without asking the customer first (they call this "transparency"). Even if it did, if the customer canceled the check either the software would deactivate or would create a violation of the license agreement.

These Old Macs

I'm sure you won't be surprised, but yup I have a basement full of old Mac's. I really am trying to collect them all (or at least one of each), and they all work. I haven't had the chance, but the plan is to build an old Mac museum with an Appletalk network for the real oldies, and Ethernet for the newer ones (with internet for for those that can handle it). Then again I have an SE/30 with a NIC card and have run a browser on it's little 9" black and white screen before.
I have a couple Mac Pluses, and original 20 MB external HD for one, and an SE or 2. Tough I have quite a few machines, I'm missing the two "Holy Grail's" (128k and 512k), and as the years go by, the chance that someone I know might have one in their basement they would rather give to me than keep.
There is the 6100 I found on the curb (no jokes). The system worked and became quite the useful machine for a good 4 years. Some are special. I don't have my original Classic II, but I have one like it. I have an SE/30 I built from parts, and there's the IIsi.
The IIsi holds some sentimental value as it belonged to the father of some friends' who died long before his time. It was kinda cool when they gave it to me for my collection, he loved that machine, and he is one of the guys that made me such a big Mac head. A radio engineer by day, GW, was a damn funny and damn smart guy. I will also miss the strangely addressed pieces of junk mail that usually came with the middle initial "Q". This was one of GW's trademarks. He would get you on some mailing list or with a "Q" right there between your names. Someday it will sit at the center of the collection, among the LC's and Quadras. I'm proud to have his machine.

Low End Mac

I would like to thank lownedmac.com for featuring one of my articles in their "Around The Web" section. If you are not already reading the site (and I'm sure you are because you only found me because of them), do so. There is Mac model info, great articles, and it is a top notch site. As a Mac Guru I would consider this to be required reading. Kudos to Dan Knight for his great work. And most especially, thanks for the link and thanks for reading Dan! (And thanks everyone for reading!)