Granted, this post is not real estate related. However, since Rain City Guide is at the intersection of Real Estate Ave & Technology Blvd, I figured the goings on at Microsoft Way might interest some Rain City Readers.
For good or ill, Microsoft is still the 800 lb gorilla of the technology industry. Because of this, the success of the company has sizable impact on the price & availability of housing in the region. Therefore, it’s fair to say, that I’m hoping that Windows Vista won’t suck, and its success will lead to another growth spurt at the company which will increase the value of every-body’s home in the greater Redmond/Seattle area. (That way both the geeks & realtors will be happy)
Anyway, the purpose of this post if to inform the geeky among us that Microsoft is having a Windows Vista Install Fair this weekend. Here’s what you need to do in order to get a free copy Windows Vista.
- Have a computer that your willing to sacrifice that meets the following criteria..
- Your important data has been backed up! (This is pre-release software after all)
- Operating System is Windows XP SP2 (Home or Professional) English x86.
- Intel/AMD Processor running at 1 GHz or higher.
- Minimum of 512MB of RAM.
- Video adapter is AGP4x/8x or PCIe with a minimum of 64MB of RAM.
- Hard Disk has a minimum of 10GB of free space to allow for upgrade.
- Has a DVD-ROM Drive.
- Send mail to Windows Vista Install Fair Registration (wvifr@microsoft.com) and inform them that you wish to participate in either the Saturday (March 18th 2006) 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM session or the Sunday (March 19th 2006) 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM session.
- Bring yourself and your computer over to Building 27 on the Microsoft Campus at the scheduled time.
- Enjoy your free copy of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition (February 2006 CTP Version)
Well, I’m looking forward to playing around with all the cool new features and using an OS built for the 21st century. Here’s to hoping my laptop enjoys the experience!
Robbie,
any free-Vista-love for the non-locals?
Thank’s, but I’ll stick with my Mac.
Speaking of irrelevant to real estate technologies – I just bought 300Gb SATA Maxtor HDD for $110 – http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4116853 (in case anyone is interested). Had to go to bestbuy to get SATA PCI card and after I tried to install it I found out that I do not have SATA power connector :-/ Will get one tomorrow.
Ok, Robbie… no free Vista love for South Carolanians (well, legal aliens south carolanians ;)) No feedback either.. is your laptop down after installation? Would be really neat to hear some first (I’m sure it’s ain’t first for ya) impression from the product. Please? 🙂
Thanks ! Got snuck in to the Sunday session 🙂
Max – The last time I used what is now known as Vista was back in the Winter of 2003 (when it was pre-alpha and it was a buggy mess back then). I suspect it’s much better now (at least I hope so)!
Todd – The Mac is just another Windows box now. 😉
I sent an email for the Sat session and never got a reply back…
Experience w/ Vista – The install process was painfully slow. Bring a book, watch an NCAA basketball game in the lobby and a buy a faster DVD drive on your way to the fair. It took 4+ hours to install on my 2 GHz Pentium M laptop. Most of that time was due installing a 2 GB file from my DVD drive.
However, the install was stable. It upgraded my machine with no major problems. The worst thing that happened is that it didn’t install ATI mobility video drivers, so I’m not getting all the cool DirectX Window effects that I should be getting and I can’t play the new Solitaire. 🙁 My laptop is like the Matrix bullet time, visually impressive but slow. Still, it’s pretty good for a Beta…
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