Windows Movie Maker - save file to my computer problem

I recently had a problem using Windows Movie Maker and try as I might, all the cure alls on the internet did not help me. This problem occurred after adding a sound effect (a .mp3 file) to an existing project. Everything I saw on the net said the problem was related to not enough memory (ram). At some point, I noticed that the process of saving stopped at the point where my added sound effect occurred. I know that if a file has an error, it usually occurs at the beginning, or more likely, the end of the file. I shrank the size of the clip by a second or so and then tried again. It went further but still stopped. I used this new sound effect ( the gong sound) 4 times, so I cropped each instance of it from the end and it cured the problem. Here's the video:

I hate Microsoft Even More!

Why do I hate Microsoft? Let me count the ways!

1. Windows ME
2. Windows Vista
3. Office(any version)
4. Internet Explorer (version 8's okay i guess)
5. Service Packs: XP has 3! Really! Was this software ready for release?
6. Adobe has Flash. Why Silverlight? Why not "Lightning"! Sounds catchy. Therefore, not Microsoft.
7. Did I mention Windows Genuine Advantage? Advantage = them! Us = not so much.
8. Nice website
9. Bill Grates on my nerves
10. All of the above

Actually, I do have a minor gripe with "the empire". I design some websites, not very well thank you, but still I do. One of the "tools" I use is Microsoft Expressions. I originally started with Frontpage only because I'm not notepad website hacker guy. I need WYSIWYG( pronounced "wisseewig" it stands for "what you see is what you get". Anyhow and whatnot, I use Expression 2 and noticed an opportunity to upgrade to version 3 and get a "free" upgrade to Expression 4! Being the dumbass that I am,  I jumped at the chance to go with a company with a great track record of providing quality software at a reasonable price. I bit, HARD! They got me!
The story is that Expression 3 sucked and sucked bad. Real bad! After installing, computers were crashing and nobody could get anything done. This was why they offered the "free" upgrade to version 4. Version 4 would fix everything, right? Wrong!
My situation is this: if I open a website designed in Expression 2 it doesn't look like what I designed, so I went back to version 2 and it crashes shortly after liftoff! What to do, what to do? I guess I may have to reinstall my operating system and the Expression Web 2 and try to hold it together until they tempt me with another great offer. Maybe if I buy Expression 5 they throw in a coupon to Dreamweaver so I can actually design instead of bitch, ya think?

Installing Windows 7

It's Sunday, there's football on, but its time to install windows 7. I ran the upgrade advisor and it says go ahead. I just exported my bookmarks from firefox and transferred some data to other drives. Then I made a list of installed programs. Right now I'm formatting an external hard drive because they advise using one along with "windows easy transfer" located here. I've also decided to install the 64 -bit version of windows 7 (maybe I'll be the first kid on the block with it). And, I'm putting this operating system on computer #1. Oddly, when you purchase windows 7, you get a card that tells you to use windows easy transfer. But after installing windows easy transfer the program contradicts the card. Let me explain. The card say's you need an external hard drive in order to use easy file transfer and goes on to say you can use a USB flash drive or Cds or DVDs  but must copy files manually. Yet the program offers the use of a network option thats not mentioned on the card. Weird, huh?

Anyway, after running this very cool program it ends up wanting to back up a huge amount of stuff (almost 600 GB) and the external drive I'm using is old and small (80GB). This computer has 4 hard drives in it (two for operating systems and two for data) and it picked up the other 3. I went to customize and then advanced and deselected all drives except "c". The result, 315.7 MB is more reasonable.

Wow! A lightning fast transfer time of 5 minutes! That's a wrap!

Step 4 on the card that came with windows 7 says "Insert the windows 7 DVD into your PC. When asked "Which type of installation do you want?" click "Custom (advanced). Only that didn't happen with me. What happened was a message that says "This installation disc isn't compatible with your version of windows. To upgrade, you need the correct installation disc. For more information, check your computer's system information. To install a new copy of windows, restart (boot) your computer using the installation disc, and then select custom(advanced).

I chose to boot with the 64 bit Dvd in the drive to see what would happen. What happened is theres a box asking for a driver for a CD/DVD! I haven't heard this one before. Of course its my fault. I have an add in card for IDE drives because my motherboard only has one. The chipset on it is from Sillycon image. I went to them but had to use the AMD version to get it to work. Well, its installing anyway.

That was at 5:00 its now 7:30 and it hung about an hour or two ago. I'm used to this behavior and will let a computer and/or software try to sort itself out. But, I gave up for today. I rebooted and my original configuration came back I.E. dual boot, 2 o.s.s to choose from. No data gone. No problem.

To Windows 7 or not to Windows 7, that is the question

Let me explain. I use two main computers. Computer #1 has a dual boot system installed, both Windows XP, one for productivity and the other for games. Both have two accounts set up, one as general(limited) and the other as maintenance(administrative). This is how everybody should have their computer set up, as far as accounts are considered.
Computer #2 is also dual boot, with Windows Vista and Windows XP options. Either operating system has general as well as maintenance options. Now, I have to decide how and why to put Windows 7 on which computer. The why is obvious, as I've already beta tested it and I want to keep up on current operating systems. How is a little more complicated, as I'm quite happy with what I have going on. As I write this on computer#1, I'm uploading pictures to pikshures and indexing all the pictures on computer#2 with Picasa after booting into Vista. Why screw things up? Probably because I'm getting a little bored and need a challenge, so, I'm going to install Windows 7 onto computer#1 sometime this week. Stay tuned!

Windows 7 Launch Party

Sometime back, Microsoft sent me an invitation to host a window 7 launch party. I participated in their beta testing program for windows 7 and they must have felt obligated to extend me this courtesy. So I responded but on Wednesday got the email denying me my right to be a host. I knew the odds were steep but thought, what the hell. It's a good thing they didn't ask me for the list of people attending because we were going to round up all the bobble heads and other inanimate "people" we could find! We may still have one, haven't decided yet. My main attraction was the free edition of windows 7 ultimate anyway.