Duval and Front Street Key West Picture

I find myself stopping at this spot every time I am in town and looking exactly at this view.   At my back was a building that used to be a Gap.  On Duval Street.  I can't really think of a worse place for a Gap.  Imagine getting on a cruise ship and going to your port and saying "Hey, I want some knock off of Levi Jeans to wear when I get to Cozumel"!   Neither could the tourists since the place closed and is now a no name clothing store like all the rest.

To the right is Zero Duval street where the Sundown Celebrations happen every evening.  Its a great excuse to rub shoulders and have a beer and soak in the vibes as the sun gives its performance over the islands and the sea to the Gulf of Mexico.

Forward is Mallory Square, where the Conch Train and the shell shops are there to separate tourists from their pocket change.  Always a nice place to cool off and you can get a drink if you need it while exploring.

Saint Paul's Episcopal Church, Key West

I seem to remember that this church was featured in one of the James Bond movies.  The movie I'm thinking of is License to Kill where they flew an airplane into the old Seven Mile Bridge near Pigeon Key in the middle keys.   Bond isn't really my favorite, and the bridge still stands, just like this gleaming white church.

This would be the St Paul's Episcopal Church and is a beautiful building to see.   It must be since I and many other photographers are all milling around taking pictures of the place.   The day I was there, there were at least 4 other people taking pictures, in fact you can see the head of one in the lower left corner.  I'd photoshop it out if I were to do anything with this other than post it here. 

XP Mode install on Windows 7

Now that I had installed Windows 7 on my Acer Aspire 5610, I set about this new thing called "XP Mode".   If you have a lot of XP software, and who doesn't, you will be considering this.   What it does is set up a way for you to run your old software in a box that looks like a Windows XP desktop within your Windows 7 machine.

It looks just like your current Windows XP desktop, if you're still on Windows XP.   The way it works is that Microsoft is going to give you free for download a copy of Windows XP called XP Mode that will only install on a Windows 7 machine.  You will download that (Its a big one, 1.4GB of disc space) and a copy of "Windows Virtual PC 7" which is fairly small.   This only runs on Windows 7 so if you haven't gone that route, this discussion won't help you.   If you're on a Mac I'd suggest looking elsewhere like VMWare Fusion 3 that I'm evaluating for my boss at work.

There is also another wrinkle.   Windows Virtual PC 7 will ONLY run on specific computers and only after you twiddle with your bios to turn on something called Virtualization.   If you have that you will have a great experience, if you don't I'll have a later post on what to do there, since I had to go that route for this machine.

To test this, surf over to this link and run the program that is on the page called the "Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor".  That link will give you an idea of first whether your machine will run Windows 7.

Further you will want to look at this link which will tell you if you can run Windows 7 XP mode.  You will download a program and it will run and look at your hardware and tell you whether you have that little bit of extra goodies in your computer that will work with XP Mode.   The program is called "havdetectiontool.exe" as of this writing.

In my case it said no.   It would have saved me time surfing some really confusing pages on Acer and Intel had I done that but I'm hard headed.

Assuming it says yes, then surf the XP mode page here and select your language and version of Windows 7 that you have, and yes you do need to know that.   In my case it was Professional 32 bit and English.

Step 4 says download XP mode, and install it.   When that is done, download and install Windows Virtual PC.  

At that point you're installed, you probably have some reboots to go through and some set ups, but I have seen XP Mode, its worth the effort, and lets you run Windows XP like you were used to.   It runs almost as fast as the Native Windows 7 that you are running as the PC operating system at about 97% of normal speed - from what has been reported.

The only gotcha is that XP mode will only be supported until 2014 so better get going huh?   Well by then you'll have other worries and other PCs but for now it works like a champ from what I saw on my Network Admin's laptop.

Fast Buck Freddies - Creativity at work - Picture

What happens when a boring chain store pulls out of a town and leaves a vacuum?

When you're in Key West you get a one of a kind gem known as Fast Buck Freddie's.   The place used to be a Kresge's and when the city of Key West lost its way due to the Cuban Revolution cutting off trade and travel down there, business dried up and the Kresge's closed.

Fast forward a few years later and the place was opened up by a person with some creative intelligence and some truly interesting buyers getting a one of a kind assortment of merchandise that is worth a look.   The link on Google Maps Street View shows the front window in better detail but frankly neither picture does the window justice.   This is one of the most creative window displays I have ever seen and that is true every time I go there.  

If you are in town, skip the shell shops and the other tourist traps and go to Fast Buck Freddie's, its always entertaining and you may go home with something truly worth your time and effort.

Everything is Five Dollars Picture

Local color and Adaptive Reuse.  When you're in a small city that was forgotten for a bit of time you end up having some rather interesting buildings that might have been torn down in an area that was more financially well off.   This rather interesting brick building has survived hurricanes, floods, winds and water only to end up as a shop that sells everything for five dollars.  That would be what the guy standing in the doorway was saying... over and over and over every time he spotted someone.   I could do without the constant huckstering but the fact the building was still standing was a nice benefit.

A week with Windows 7

I made the jump to Windows 7 this week on one of my laptops.   One of the thing I did in Key West other than take a shed-load of pictures was to help a friend out with his PCs.   He had one with over 100 viruses and needed the pictures out of it, another that he used as a desktop machine, a third that was "Dead" and some others in various repair.   I set him up with the three best, set up his router, and came home with the remainder.

The ones I came home with were better than what I had before, an old Dell Inspiron 600m that is fast enough under Windows XP to do anything I want, but I do budget time with it.   Since I hadn't moved into either of the two new machines I had the luxury of deciding "What do I want to do with all this stuff".   Since I am an IT Manager now, I can actually put these things to use.   The widescreen Gateway with the Core Solo processor which is still faster than the Inspiron is now my video editing PC and will get all the things that I do that take time.  Set it up and let it roll on XP.  It is stable and has a 17 inch wide screen, perfect for my web development under Joomla! (yes its a real name), and Video Editing.

I have this machine that was the fastest of the lot, an Acer Aspire 5610 with 2GB of memory.   It is a 2007 vintage from what I can tell, not new, but in physically good condition and pretty much perfect for the upgrade.   I have a (legal) copy of Windows 7 Professional that I won't share so don't ask.   I started the upgrade then went for a dog walk.  Yes, that easy.   I didn't care what was on the machine and just formatted the extra two partitions after merging them and went out with Lettie The Super Dog for a mile around town.

When we got back, about 30 minutes later the Acer was sitting at a prompt asking me for a Key which I have.   I sent it back on its way after a few more prompts, happily installing and set about my normal morning routine.   It finished while I was in the shower and then I restarted it at the Out Of the Box experience screen - or OOBE (Ooo Bee).  Yes, that is what we call it where you enter in your name for a log in.

Basically in short what I'm saying is that if you want a machine that is clean and you don't want a lot of junk running slowing you down, you will want to do a "Clean Format and Install".  Go buy yourself a "Thumb Drive" of about 16 GB or so, it will cost less than $40, a copy of Windows 7 Pro (Skip the Home stuff, they leave too much out), and install it yourself. 

If you have Vista, you can do an upgrade but I decided I did not want to go that way with it.   I didn't care what was on the machine.   If you do, the Upgrade procedure is not completely clean all the time, you may end up formatting the PC and starting over, so make sure you copy your My Documents tree onto that Thumb Drive (USB Key, Flash Drive or what ever name you wish to call it) so you don't lose your recipes and letters to Mom and pictures of the Dog.   Also make sure you have copies of the programs you installed, back up your favorites and bookmarks to the drive, and just have a good long snoop around your PC and make sure you've saved everything you really DO need before installing.

If you have XP, back everything up because there is no way to do this without formatting your hard drive.   The Install of Win 7 will do it for you, but everything on the hard drive will be gone.

Let me repeat... If you are installing Windows 7 on a machine with XP, you will lose everything so back it up first!

I have used Windows 7 since the betas for about 6 or so months, maybe longer.   I've used it on some really strange hardware.   The biggest question is what would you install it on.   If your machine came with Vista, you should be safe - they typically come with 2 or 3 GB of memory and Win 7 is really happy there.

If you have an older machine, I would say that you probably have XP.  Windows 7 runs just a teeny bit slower than XP.   If you REALLY want Windows 7 then you can gauge for yourself but I'd recommend going to 2 gigs of memory first.

I have run it on a Pentium 3 1GHz laptop (IBM Thinkpad A30) with 1gb of Memory and it was useable but slow, however it was slow on XP.   I wouldn't recommend it for long term use.

My personal opinion is that anything Pentium 4 or newer (Core Solo, Pentium M, Faster Celeron, Core Duo and so forth) with 2GB of memory will run fine.   You really want a faster machine.  Something approximately faster than a Pentium 4 2GHz but it will run on a slower chip and if you have a Pentium 4 "class" machine you're due for a newer PC anyway.

I agree with what Microsoft says the following at this link

If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it takes:

• 
  
  1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
  
  
  
• 
  
  1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
  
  
  
• 
  
  16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
  
  
  
• 
  
  DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Here's the front gate from yesterday's picture

So here you have it.   This is the front gate of the Hemingway House in Key West.   The picture yesterday was a view through the side fence of the place looking through all the foliage. 

Here you see the front gate and front view of the place.   Well you'd see the front of the house if you were on top of it.   There are a lot of plantings there as are everywhere else this far South.   All it takes is for a bird to pass a seed and you end up with a palm tree growing in a strange place in the yard.   Give it enough time without pulling it out and it becomes a feature in your property.

Guess where this is in Key West Picture

I'll tell you tomorrow.   This is what happens when you have a large home in the Keys and decide to go for a more lush or even natural look.   I'd say it is debatable how much of this is natural because most of it is not native, but it is really quite pleasant to look at.   Down here, plants that you would have in a pot up North that have become stunted due to the lack of sunlight and warmth become invasive and will take over.  Still kind of nice to look at though!

Key West Harbour Picture

Hey, this is fun.   Take a lot of pictures and post them on the net.  :)

Actually that day I walked all over the island and at this point I ended up at the Harbour.  Picture Perfect as they say.  The view here was crystal clear, and I swear I heard someone talk about the SS Minnow leaving for a Three Hour Tour.

They've got a rather picturesque harbour there.   You can see for miles between the boats.   Look down and there are fish in the water which is clear down to about your feet.   I had to dodge a Chicken and a Pelican that particular afternoon which isn't exactly what you'd expect on a normal walk.

All in the name of "Local Color".

Good Night, Gracie - My Senior Moment

I was out walking my Border Collie yesterday morning.  Nothing new about that, I do a walk with her three times a day.   Having a Border Collie means that you will be active, or you will have your house torn up.   I was told by Megs at Angel Pets Rescue in Dauphin County, PA when I got Lettie, Walk her as much as you can, as far as you can, for as often as you can and you'll have a wonderful relationship with your dog.  Maybe not in those words but if you have a Border Collie, or for that matter any other dog, they're words to live by.

Those long walks are long enough that I went back to my old skating habit of listening to either Audio Books or old time Radio shows.   Great habit to get into if you want entertainment and have to do something repetitive at 6AM when your mind is not quite there yet.   I have been listening to Burns and Allen for the last few days, and have been enjoying them.   Nice "Light Entertainment" as the BBC would describe it.

For example the exchange between George Burns and Senor Lee, his hispanic (Most likely "Mexican" back then) musician:

Senor Lee "I've been to Missippi"
George "Missippi?  It is Mississippi!"
Senor Lee "Mrs Sippi?  She got married?"

...And other cornball like that.  Well worth a listen if you get a chance.

As I rounded my half mile point and turned home, I ran into a woman who I see at least twice a week walking her Dachshund or as much as you can walk a Mini Dachshund like that.   We chat pleasantly every time we meet, she seems approximately 40 plus, so I assumed we were contemporaries.   She was asking what kind of music I was listening to and that was where I had to explain that I wasn't.   I was listening to Burns and Allen.   She had no idea who they were.   I know George had been quiet until the 80s and 90s but he'd pop up from now and then, he'd made his 100th birthday barely and went to his reward shortly thereafter and doing his trademark dry wisecracks with Gracie in the great comedy room in the sky.

Not only that she didn't know who George and Gracie were (Come in, I still hear "Goodnight Gracie" in sitcoms to date!) but she didn't realize that there were such things as Variety and Comedy shows on Radio back in the 20s through the 50s.  Fair enough, we all come from different backgrounds, and all have different interests, and we are talking about something that predates my own birth by years.   I guess with the era of 300 channels and nothing on, and satellite radio one tends to forget the history of popular culture from before they were born, even if they were taught it by their older siblings and relatives.

*sigh* Then again I'm currently listening to "Its Good to be the King (rap) by Mel Brooks" from 1982.   I had enough of trance for the day...

Who is Mel Brooks?   Well back in the old days when the world was all in Black and White and Dinosaurs roamed the earth....