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While renovating a school, 100 year old lessons remaining on chalkboards are discovered. . .
Lessons
Cheers, PW.
If I had a partition on my hard dive, could I load windows 10 on the unused portion so I could try it without disturbing what I already have (windows 7)?
From time to time, someone asks a question that looks straight forward on the surface, but when one looks at answering it, they discover that it's not quite as simple as it appeared at first.
The quick answer is YES.
But there are a few strings attached. . .
First of all, Windows Ten requires Windows 10 BootManager. When installed, even as a second operating system, the Windows 10 installer overwrites the Windows 7 BootManager and alters the Boot Configuration Database (BCD) to recognize both systems.
This isn't a huge issue, except for how things work afterward. As we'd expect, at boot time, the Boot Menu appears and asks which system to start. If you choose Windows Ten, things proceed normally, as you'd expect. If you choose Windows Seven, the system boots all over again before starting Windows Seven.
Note: You can override this annoying behaviour by editing the BCD and setting BootMenuPolicy to Legacy.
If your really and truly want to isolate your Windows Ten from your Windows Seven, you could select which disk partition is set to Active. Set the unused partition to Active before installing Windows Ten. This way, your Windows Ten system will be totally independent from your Windows Seven system. Your Windows Ten partition will have the Windows Ten BootManager and Windows Ten BCD. Of course, your system will always boot to the active partition, Windows Ten. To boot to Windows Seven, you'll need to change which partition is set as Active. You can do this using DiskMgmt.MSC or DiskPart.EXE -- both these utilities come with Windows.
Hint: When I use the "Altering the Partition Set as Active" method, I create shortcuts for choosing the system to load on the next boot. For this to work, I use a tiny utility, MBRWiz.EXE and the following in the shortcut's Target box.
%ComSpec% /C D:\Utility\MBRWiz /Disk=0 /Part=1 /Active /Confirm >R:\BootWin7.LOG
And a "Sister" shortcut to change things back. . .
%ComSpec%\system32\cmd.exe /C D:\Utility\MBRWiz /Disk=1 /Part=4 /Active /Confirm >R:\BootWinV.LOG
Note: This code must be altered to suit your disk. I'm putting what I use in this message as a guide only to get you started.
You can get the MBRWiz utility here. (Plenty of sites feature it, but be careful, quite a few offer older versions.)
MBRWiz
Let's re-visit the Dual-Boot option. . .
If you choose to Dual-Boot, you may want to save your original Windows Seven boot files. Unfortunately, Windows takes astoundingly defensive measures to keep you from working with these files. The simplest route to get around Windows defenses is to boot from your Windows installation media to get this work done.
The files you want to copy to a safe place are. . .
C:\bootmgr
C:\Boot\BCD
You'll see many more files here, but these two are the only important ones.
Note: These files have the Hidden Attribute Set. (And probably the System Attribute Set too, but I can't remember.)
To kiss Windows Ten good-bye, simply replace the Windows Ten version of these files with your saved original Windows Seven ones.
And one more thing. . .
This message deals with systems using MBR disks. Things may be quite different for people using GPT disks. (Maybe someone using GPT will respond to this message and fill in the missing information.)
Hope this helps. And again, thank-you for the interesting question.
Cheers, PW.
It's a gorgeous spring day. Buckets of sunshine abound. Do you:
A: Go to Mr. Henry's first period algebra class or,
B: Make your escape?
When I a student, I attended the classes.
Now that I'm in my seventh decade, when I contemplate the above question, I wished I'd made different choices.
Nice days don't arrive very often. In contrast, Work, or School-Work, seems plentiful. At times, it's supply seems inexhaustible.
How many nice days would I've spent at the beach instead of at the desk? Probably no more than two or three per year. What would I look back at fondly today: Differential Equations or a few hours in Heaven?
Sure, I could spend all day, every day, at the beach now. But it's too late for me to spend one minute there as a young person.
Cheers, PW.
P.S. I'm not advocating a wholesale abandonment of the responsibilities that students have toward their studies, but instead, I'm suggesting that they must be careful to not let golden opportunities slip through their fingers.
How guns are being used by citizens. . .
Link
Cheers, PW.
How the "Ghost Army" helped in World War II. . .
Ghost Army
Cheers, PW.
Reed responds to today's military leadership. . .
Today's Military
Cheers, PW.
"It takes a good guy with a gun. . ."
Good Guy
Cheers, PW.
As if we don't have enough to be concerned about. . .
Study shows that Solid State Drives can lose data if left unused without power. The loss can take place in a matter of a few days, depending on the temperature of the disk, while it remains dormant. Even a few degrees can have a profound impact.
For more details, check this .PDF: Details
Cheers, PW.
Since today's Mothers' Day, I'd like to depart from my usual expressions of sentiment on this special day and share a site featuring motherhood from the animal world.
More pictures can be found here. . .
Love
Observant people will notice that #37 doesn't quite fit Mothers' Day.
Cheers, PW.
P.S. This video has been blocked in my country, but for those fortunate enough to be able to view it, I hope they find it uplifting.
When I read about the Seattle restaurants' difficulties with the new minimum wage laws, I speculated how this mess will end. It won't be pretty! It's not the first time government regulation has closed businesses and it won't be the last.
The first few seconds of this video remind me of what it's like to run a business while complying with regulations. . .
Technology support people get to tell a few stories about what they've encountered. . .
Stories
Cheers, PW.
. . .African-Americans would benefit if both parties were forced to compete for their vote. . .
Currently, the Democrats have their vote, and it looks like they will have it well into the foreseeable future.
Why should the Democrats spend effort or treasure to secure votes they already have?
And why would Republicans waste resources chasing votes they will never get?
This leaves African-Americans with neither party motivated to do anything on their behalf.
This is one situation where the politicians are not at fault. They're simply observing which way the wind's blowing and setting their sails accordingly.
A far better strategy for African-Americans would be to switch party allegiance frequently. This would result in both parties trying to earn their support.
Cheers, PW.
. . .Gardner did not donate his organs. . .
Why did the guy get to choose?
When someone commits a crime serious enough to merit the death penalty, they create a tremendous debt to society. Their execution goes toward repaying that debt, but in all too many cases, their payment with a life that is worthless still leaves their huge debt to society outstanding.
Donating organs, and perhaps saving an innocent life by doing so, can help tilt their ledger favourably. But when they refuse, it's time for society to step forward and demand these life-takers become life-givers.
Did any of them give their victims choices?
Cheers, PW.
Innovation in education. . .
Thank-you for your thoughts. As I suspected, we're sacrificing what we know works for what we hope will work better. It's an approach often taken by those in charge of other people's money or other people's children. Few are willing to gamble their own fortune or offspring so cavalierly.
What I have difficulty understanding is why those in charge of education embrace new ideas and implement them fully across the entire nation BEFORE they are proven to be an improvement over traditional methods.
I would think it wise to put new ideas to the test first, with a tiny group of students. If the idea looks promising after initial "real world" testing, repeat the experiment with a larger number of students. If, after honest and thorough testing, the new ideas still look promising, then, and only then, expand its adoption.
And during the testing, allow parents to decide whether their children will be part of the test, or excluded.
Of course, before any changes are made to a teaching approach, a plan must be put in place to remedy any damage done if the "improved" methods do not work. In short, we shouldn't make students into victims.
Cheers, PW.
I'd really appreciate reading your thoughts on Finland abandoning their traditional curriculum for some "fresh" thinking. . .
Finland
Cheers, PW.
. . .This is a kid that has probably needed a slap upside the head for some years.
Something I don't understand is why our society views corporal punishment as bad parenting and the widespread drugging kids not only acceptable, but condoned.
Cheers, PW.
Nice truck. . .
I like to move forward with caution. No matter how good an idea looks, I prefer to test it a bit before committing to it fully. That way, if it turns out to be terrible, little damage has been done.
What I cannot understand is why politicians seem to greet every unproven idea with a full embrace and commit the entire nation to it immediately. And when it's had a chance to prove itself unworkable, it's so firmly entrenched it's almost impossible to alter or abandon.
Education provides a great example of this. For almost a lifetime, books have been written about what we're doing wrong. (There's a "sample list" in this article.)
Article
Amazingly, we once had a system that worked! It's not like we need to "discover" a new one before we can return quality to schools.
Unfortunately, sufficient time has passed that the majority of teachers experienced with tools and techniques that were effective have now retired. We're well past the days when turning things around would be easy. But this is no excuse. We owe the next generation the best start in life we can give them. (After all, we've given them the National Debt.)
Cheers, PW.
People who follow Bruce Tinsley's cartoon Mallard Fillmore, know that he often draws multiple strips on a single theme. This week, he's been skewering Education. . .
Mallard Fillmore
Cheers, PW.
P.S. Don't confuse the cartoon duck with Millard Fillmore, U.S. President 1850-1853 and Co-founder of the University at Buffalo.
Officials in India want to make one thing clear: The tree that President Barack Obama planted in New Delhi three weeks ago is not dead.
When I read this, I couldn't help but think of this video clip. . .
I liked quite a few of her songs, but my "free spirit" resonated most with this one. . .
Getting up. . .
I take a morning walk for a few miles, and the only thing that stops me is lightening. These last few days have seen -20F temperatures and wind. I don't mind the cold, but the wind can be unpleasant.
One thing that makes a big difference for me is starting out warm. Since I leave immediately after a breakfast of cereal and cold milk, and I don't turn the furnace on until after I return, I can find myself chilled both inside and out. But I have a trick.
The first thing I do when I get up is toss my outdoor clothes on the guest bed and turn on the electric blanket. In the few minutes I take getting ready to leave, they're warm and toasty. By the time I'm dressed, this little bit of heat has made a world of difference.
Although it only lasts for less than 100 feet once I'm outside, by then I'm moving at full speed and generating heat internally sufficient enough to feel comfortable.
This doesn't work as well for my husband. To help get him going, I toss his clothes into the dryer. This serves double duty: it gets his stuff good and hot, and the racket awakens him from the deepest slumber.
Many years ago, I wrote about another method of getting him up. Here's a link for those who may have missed it.
The Awakening
Cheers, PW.
RE: Obama slams Staples for reducing hours to avoid Obamacare
If I remember correctly, Mitt Romney was instrumental in starting Staples. Maybe there's some connection between this and the current occupant of the White House attacking Staples. Maybe not, but it still doesn't pass the sniff test.
Cheers, PW.
The only correct conclusion that any American can make is that every statement of the US government and its presstitute media is a blatant lie designed to serve a secret agenda that the American people would not support if they knew of its existence.
Whenever Washington and its whore media speak, they lie.
These are the last few words of a scathing article about our current media and the damages they are causing.
Presstitutes
Cheers, PW.
P.S. Presstitute: A fabricated word from joining Press and Prostitute.
King Abdullah has quickly become the face of the fight against our enemy, radical Islam, and yet many Americans know almost nothing of the man or Jordan’s critical role in the region.
I’d like to shed some light. . .
. . .
King Abdullah is the epitome of his family’s moderation and has continued the stability of Jordan away from radical Islam. King Abdullah’s mother was born and raised British, the daughter of a senior Royal Navy officer. Abdullah was educated in the U.S. In his recently published book “Our Last Chance,” Abdullah describes his high school days at a northeastern prep school while he and his brother learned the culture and openness of American society. Following his father’s footsteps, King Abdullah attended the British Military Academy at Sandhurst (after his American education) and received a Queen’s commission. He went on to serve a number of years as a British officer. Abdullah came back to Jordan as part of the Royal family, but was not the designated Crown Prince. Abdullah lived most of his adult life as an Army officer, attending American and UK military schools at times, and rising to the rank of major general. His last post was as commander of Jordanian Special Forces. Due to palace intrigue on the part of his Crown Prince uncle, Abdullah’s father, King Hussein, declared his son Crown Prince days before his death.
This background helps explains the King’s decisions when it comes to IS.
. . .
Pieces taken from: The King
Cheers, PW.
An article outlining a few reasons why one should partition their disk. . .
Partition
Cheers, PW.
This weather guy takes weather map malfunctions in stride. . .
News item. . .
The Saudi state television station apparently blurred out the image of U.S. first lady Michelle Obama in the broadcast of her and President Barack Obama’s meeting with new Saudi King Salman today in Riyadh.
Watching this video is an enjoyable four minutes. . .
3 TB drives are the least reliable. . .
Article
Cheers, PW.
Martin Luther King Jr. 1963 letter from Birmingham Jail remains relevant today. . .
Letter
Cheers, PW.
Along the right edge, the text "*Google Omar Mahmood" sparked my curiosity. So I did. . .
Search Results
Sheesh! Those on the Left sure don't have a sense of humour!
Cheers, PW.
P.S. Omar's Article
Wishing your future be the best possible.
Cheers, PW.
For those who have a bit of time. . .
This site lets you choose a pair of politicians and it produces a comparison between them.
Matchup
Cheers, PW.