August 24, 2011

Saten's keyboard

The USB keyboard just got delivered, and I'm posting this from Saten.

And now to see if I can install SimLife on it.

UPDATE: And, both SimEarth and SimLife work fine on Saten, which is running Win7 Pro 32. So if I want to run them on Alcyone, I'll have to install the XP simulator, which I'm told isn't all that hard.

Now to give it a try.

UPDATE: I've got XP mode installed, but how do I use it?

UPDATE: I created a shortcut on my desktop to the install.exe file, and used the "compatibility" tab to set it to run as "XP SP 2", but it still pops up the error about not being able to run it.

Will I have to install VirtualPC and use that?

UPDATE: I need to learn how to read manuals. "To install applications in Windows XP Mode, you start by selecting Windows XP Mode from the Windows 7 Start Menu."

UPDATE: SimEarth is working. Now for SimLife.

The installation is a bit of a pain. Virtual XP mode shows an A drive, but it isn't actually the USB floppy. That looks like a networked drive, but the Maxis installer doesn't know about those. So I had to copy each of the installation floppies onto the virtual C drive.

Alcyone has a quad core. When SimEarth is running full out, the CPU usage runs about 35%. I assume that means one core is completely dedicated to running the XP environment, and a second core is partially busy doing all the virtualization.

Of course, when you look at the Task Manager, the load is distributed among all the cores. The multitasking system distributes the load that way to avoid heating any one core up, for instance if they were physically separate chips.

UPDATE: Speaking of Windows Updates... "78 high priority updates waiting". Yeesh. I think that's only the beginning; I don't think it has any of the SPs, either.

UPDATE: Since this really is a virtualized XP machine, it means I should be able to install "Cosplay Fetish Academy" on it without having to fear that SecuRom will kill my Win7 system. I'll have to give that a try later.

A lot later. I figure I'll be spending the next two hours doing updates. I wonder what it's like when I am told I have to reboot?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Computers at 11:10 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 395 words, total size 2 kb.

1 At first glance, I parsed that as "Satan's Keyboard", and I pictured something with branding-iron keycaps and letters that change when you're not looking at them, attached to a system that whips you for every typo.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at August 24, 2011 11:31 AM (fpXGN)

2 I thought Satan used DVORAK?  *ducks*

Posted by: metaphysician at August 24, 2011 12:04 PM (3GCAl)

3

It was kind of strange having all of a keyboard, a mouse, and a floppy drive attached to Saten. It felt like an entirely different computer.

Especially since the keyboard is twice the size of the Slate.

I'm going to leave the mouse plugged in. It's a lot more convenient than using the stylus for a lot of things.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 24, 2011 12:12 PM (+rSRq)

4 I'm just amazed that the Installers work when copied off the floppy.  No copy protection scheme that prevented this from working?  Cool!

Posted by: Mauser at August 24, 2011 12:41 PM (cZPoz)

5

Those were innocent times. It doesn't even have "look up the word" copy protection.

Actually, the biggest pain was setting up XP, and in particular remembering how to tell the damned security center to stop nagging me about the lack of a virus program and the fact that I have autoupdate disabled.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 24, 2011 12:53 PM (+rSRq)

6 Do you remember how Leisure Suit Larry ran a pop-culture quiz to determine user's age? Nobody in the office knew a thing about any of American celebrities referenced in there. And it was long before Google.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at August 24, 2011 01:20 PM (9KseV)

7 Leisure Suit Larry in the office? Those *were* innocent times.

Posted by: bkw at August 24, 2011 05:07 PM (34O+x)

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