L'Indipendente

As you probably know, there is no way to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. You can find a lot of articles in the web that explain you how to do that, but it is not a real upgrade but a clean install where you can preserve some of your settings and files in the best of cases. A tutorial is provided by Microsoft too.

The fact that you cannot preserve your applications is not a minor problem. You may think that it is just a matter of reinstalling them on a clean platform, but it may not work at all. It is a paradox, but if you are used to purchase original software as I am, you are seriously penilized. In fact, most of the applications I use are upgrades of original software I purchased several years ago as, for instance Jasc Paintshop Pro 4. My current version is Corel Paintshop Pro XI. I always purchased upgrades and in most cases I downloaded them, that is, I have not a box.

Obviously, when you install an upgrade, the install program looks for a previous original version. So, if I want to reinstall Corel Paintshop Pro XI on Windows 7 I should install first Paintshop Pro 9, at least, and then upgrade it to version X first, and to version XI later; plus all the patches, of course. Obviously, I have to do that for most of my original software. Freeware or shareware is simpler, since I only need the latest version and the registration key, in case of purchased shareware. It is really a mess.

I do not have a PC to run an operating system, but to use applications. So, if I have to reistall all applications it may take days, maybe a week, assuming everything works. But this is not the real pain. The point is: what if my original applications I purchased several year ago will not install on the new platform? If I cannot install the first available version, I cannot even install the upgrades. So I risk to have a nice colourful new Windows platform with few or none of my favorite applications for which I paid a lot of money for the first purchased version and all upgrades. Quite a good reason to stay on XP, in my opinion.

Post Scriptum: upgrading from XP to Windows 7 through Vista is mostly impossible for my machine. In fact — another paradox — Vista was too resource consuming to be installed on my well-tuned XP system. I was waiting for Windows 7 becuse it was less resource consuming but, if I have to upgrade to Vista first, I have no way. The system simply will not work.

Since this issue gave me quite a headache over the weekend, and since I eventually solved it, I decided to share the solution on my blog to avoid that someone else may waste time as I did.

First of all, the environment: a laptop with Ubuntu 9.10 that can be connected by wire or wireless to a home LAN. The LAN is connected to the web by an ADSL router. Second, the problem: after an update the laptop could not connect anymore to the LAN. eth0 and eth1 were detected but no activity was possible: ping, connect, web browsing... I spent a lot of time on fora and at the end I solved the problem by using hints available in different places. Here is the result. Please, note that since there was no way to see the LAN I had to install packages directly from an USB flash drive.

STEP 1: uninstall the network manager

sudo apt-get remove --purge wicd network-manager network-manager-gnome
sudo update-rc.d NetworkManager remove
sudo apt-get autoremove

STEP 2: install wicd from flash drive

sudo dpkg -i wicd_1.5.9-2_all.deb

STEP 3: flush and recreate IP tables

sudo iptables -F
sudo iptables -X
sudo iptables -t nat -F
sudo iptables -t nat -X
sudo iptables -t mangle -F
sudo iptables -t mangle -X
sudo iptables -P INPUT ACCEPT
sudo iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT
sudo iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT

STEP 4: activate the firewall

sudo ufw enable

Now the laptop can see the network, ping ip addresses, connect to servers, access Windows shares, browse the web. Note that I used the Uncomplicated Firewall ufw rather than Firestarter or GuardDog since it is easy to configure and gives no troubles.

The web should be a place of freedom, but also a place of transparency, sharing, and ethicality; a place where even advertising should be clear and absolutely not misleading. It is not. Just an example? MSN Games site.

Today I went to that site to purchase a game I like, Hexic. As you can see below, in the snapshot, it seems that the game is available at a discount price, that is, USD 6.95, Quite a good price, I thought. Great! When I clicked on that link, however, I got another panel. This one:

As you can see, the USD 6.95 does not refer to the game I wished to purchase, but to a discount program whose terms and conditions are, in summary:

If you are not interested to subscribe that program, the price of Hexic is much higher: USD 19.95, as you can see below:

Now, from a formal point of view, there is nothing wrong: in fact the first link I clicked to purchase the program literally states that you can buy the game «for as low as $6.95 for MSN Games discount program members». This is true. But the fact that the real price of product is not shown in the BUY GAME button and that the option to purchase the program is placed at the bottom in the second panel, it is, in my personal opinion, a deceiving sales method. Not ethically correct, I mean, even if absolutely legal. So, for the moment, I decided not to purchase that program. Maybe I will do it, soon or later, but not now. I do not like that way to promote products and services. I like Гла́сность, that is, glasnost, openness and transparency.

Today the British newspaper «The Sun» published a snapshot from Google Earth's satellite images showing a shape in the Loch Ness which looks like the famous monster. Is that really a plesiosaur, or just a boat with rear wakes? You can see the same image on Google Map too:

LA STORIA DELLE COSE - Versione italiana

I often use Digg to share bookmarks. When I submit a link, I am requested to specify a topic to facilitate other people to find it. Well, it is a fact that no taxonomy is really exhaustive and that every attempt to group articles by categories is based on a subjective point of view, however the Digg's selected topics are really a mystery for me. Why? Let us walk through the current list...

The first area is Technology. It has eleven topics: Apple, Design, Gadgets, Hardware, Industry News, Linux/Unix, Microsoft, Mods, Programming, Security, Software. This is really a strange mix of topics. First of all you have only one family of operating systems, that is, Linux/Unix. Of course you can use Apple and Microsoft to tag the corresponding operating systems, but what if you are speaking of mainframes? What is about Simbian or PalmOS, or Google Chrome? A better approach would be to have a topic for Platforms and another one for Applications. Communication software is ignored too, but you might use Software for that. However, in such a case, should Microsoft be used for company news only, or its software too? Well, we have Industry News for that, I suppose. And what is Mods for? Modules? Models? And what about Hardware? Quite a big category, I think. Should I use that for cellular phones too?

In my opinion, a better approach might be Platforms (for both operating systems and telecommunications layers), Middleware, and Applications for software-oriented topics; Mainframes, Workstations & PCs, Laptops & Netbooks, Mobile, and Devices for hardware-oriented topics. I would also substitute programming topics with Development, which includes modeling, design, coding, and testing, and leave Security and Industry News since they are relevant.