LotWon Lottery, Gambling, Scientific Software and Windows Vista: Dual Boot with Windows XP

I wrote sparingly this autumn (2008). I keep the focus on the fundamentals, for that's where it's at. I wrote and published new powerful software. Those Homo sapiens (plural) who got their hands on my latest software realize that talk is cheap; action is all that counts. There is a lot to accomplish with my new software. Intelligent users (a vast majority of them all users) understand that talking about the features is a waste of time, for the most part. Doing is winning in this case.

Unfortunately, I don't enjoy such a luxury. You might want to read in my next article on what I face a couple of times a year, every one of them of the past two decades. And that is in addition to my hard work to create software and theories. Free and unadulterated Time is something out-of-this-world for me.

So, how do you think the bastards of the world interpret my silence? It ain't like the ridiculous similarity to the silence of the lambs. The zombies believe I am dead already, so they take advantage, they think, and kick my always-thoroughly washed rear end. Guess what? I am alive and kicking, zombies! BRRRRRRRRAHAHAHAHA....

I wrote in my forum a while ago that I had to upgrade my computer equipment. I found a good Dell deal online, when I saved hundreds of dollars. Or, perhaps, that's only a sophisticated marketing scheme that the vendors employ during the holiday seasons. In any event, I appreciated the deal, but I regretted my action from the perspective of a {[computer user] + [computer programmer]}. I realized soon that Vista refuses to run a lot of software, including mine (partially).

My Dell PC had the 64-bit version of Windows Vista installed. The Aero theme in Vista does look splendid as an interface. But I have to believe that mostly persons with highly educated artistic tastes appreciate the super-model of the interface models. For that's what Windows, even in its super-model incarnation, is: A pretty interface on top of DOS. You can imagine {Windows Vista} as the marriage of Joe-The-Plumber (DOS) to a beautiful super-model who advertises for Dior (Jadore...je t'adore...) I can't see how such marriage could last for long. It can't...

The first highly annoying thing Vista throws at you is the User Account Control (UAC). That feature won't let you do anything without maddeningly asking you to click OK in two dialog boxes. The nuisance was featured in Apple computer commercials (at least, the ones that have flooded the U.S. television). Luckily, the UAC highly irritating bonehead feature of Vista can be turned off in the control panel. It is not intuitive, however. You gotta guess to open Users! Or, search the help facility (Vista comes with the best help facility ever in an operating system, to their credit).

By the way, MacOS is still a primitive operating system when it comes to productivity. It is meant to be a glitzy toy for kids, who don't give a damn about productivity. That's why the Apple TV commercials feature a skinny boy as a Mac computer ("Hello, I am a Mac!") and a fatty, bold guy, kind of a dull clerk, representing the PC ("And I am a PC!") Even the fact that the computers... speak is a childish fact. On the other hand, many technological developments are the result of…child exploitation! For example, the cell phone (or mobile phone) would not be nearly what it is today without a frenetic but strong push by the kids. The TV commercials for the cell phone for the past decade consist 80% of kids and are aimed 90% at kids! Where are you, Joe-The-Camel? You built the cigarette industry... (I am listening now at a Paul Simon song... where are you, Joe DiMaggio...)

Oh...everyone wants to be fancy these days! Before getting to the Vista annoyances and temptations, I had to get past a dell keyboard that was meant to be stylish! The keypad is different. I keep confusing the Del key for the PageDown or Insert key! Their positions were changed. The led lights for Cap Lock and Num Lock are tiny and their positions waas changed. The shift key is not as responsible as before, as it requires my fingers to press harder. I still get lots of sentences uncapitalized. You gotta curse like a pirate sometimes to get things fixed!

The fun has just started! One thing I hated when XP came along was the hiding, by default, of the underlining of the menu items. The feature was insanely buried in the XP configuration. It takes a lot of steps of right-clicking (I still don't remember the whole procedure…but I said it was insane, didn't I?) You gotta find a button named Effects, and then uncheck 'Hide Underlining Menu Items'... (or something as crazy as that...) Otherwise, the XP menus do not show the underscore, which represents an acceleration key. For example, the File menu shows an underscore... under letter F; therefore, pressing simultaneously letter F and the Alt key opens the File menu. That is an extraordinary productivity feature that an operating system can offer!

There is more to that productivity feature related to a tiny character named 'underscore'. It offers also a health benefit to a user's hands. Many of the operating systems (or software applications as well) are available instantly by the right click of the mouse. The so-called context-sensitive menus can show acceleration keys like the main menus (on the menu bars). But that feature is enabled only if the Hide Underlining Menu Items default in Windows XP is disabled.

Disabling that crazy default opens a goldmine of productivity shortcuts! I apply them to the fullest! I right-click in a folder, and the context-sensitive menu pops up. I know quite a few shortcuts from memory, after so much usage. Instead of moving the mouse tip over 'New' with my right hand, I just press w with my left hand. Then, instead of moving the mouse tip over 'Folder' with my right hand, I just press f with my left hand. I just created a new folder in the speediest manner, while using both hands. A user's right hand (a majority of users; lefties need special settings; what I say here is still valid for them, but interchanging the hands) is the most exploited by extensive and intensive computer work. DOS exploited both hands equally, but people still filed lawsuits on the grounds of arm and hand ailments (carpal tunnel syndrome and the like). Everything became even more dangerous after Mac and Windows, because the dominant hand has been more excruciatingly required to do extra work. A few of my colleagues thought of me as of a very fast but freaky computer operator. Even when they are women, you have to tell to some people, as if they were idiots, that health comes first. I only wear computer-typing gloves at home; otherwise I'd have to wear boxing gloves in a place where I am a persona.

Windows Vista completely eliminates the 'menu underlining' feature. The default is even more insanely anti-productivity. The default hides the menus altogether! Very hard to unbury that feature! One must search thoroughly and expect quite a few misses. The user can only uncheck 'Hide Menu Items'. The underscore cannot be enabled. Only pressing the Alt key can show the acceleration keys of the menu items (on the menu bar). Big problem, though! If you right click and open up the context-sensitive menus, you won't be able to see the acceleration keys. If you press the Alt key to show the shortcuts, the context-sensitive menu boxes evaporate instantly! You must have an elephant memory and remember all the acceleration keys from your XP era (or past life)! I must remember the key sequences for creating a new folder (as in the above example in XP).

I am sure Windows Vista was designed by highly paid artists and graphics designers. But all those artists have never, ever, done computer activity remotely related to the taboo keyword productivity. Some accuse me of being able to read humans like books. I think I have an accurate picture of what was going on during the development of Vista. They had one orgy after another. Alcohol and other mind-altering substances were generously available and consumed. I believe they paid lots of models for posing. Placing menu items on the toolbars were viewed as sacrilegious as placing cloths on the shoulders of beautiful models. Naked is beautiful, they chanted, like the drunk Greeks of the Homeric era, paying tribute to the real God-of-Gods, Dionysus. Ever seen that killingly beautiful super-model in the Jadore TV commercials? A tiny veil on her shoulders is as blasphemous as an underscore on the Vista menu items... I am also trying Word 2007 for Vista. It is the prettiest insanity I've ever experienced! Everything is sadistically designed to impede productivity! Bastards of orgiastic mind-altering means, just make productivity the default! Then, and only after that, direct the users to try those breath-taking beautiful insanities that don't have nothin' to do with doing practical things, useful things... but being just playing childish games... I can’t believe that a sane group of people would let something like that pass the gates of the company! The bluntest rupture with productive usefulness in human history!

The real Vista pain was triggered by issues with my software — I mean, software that I wrote.

All the 16-bit software I wrote is unusable in Vista, the 64-bit version. No doubt, the 64-bit software will be the future… soon, very soon! We'll be alive and well and kicking in the 64-bit era.

I tried to run my software as in my IonMenu setting. It no longer worked under 64-bit Windows Vista. The border-creating program no longer works, as it must be 16-bit software. Ok! No big deal! But, then, the 'wait for a keypress DOS .COM application' is no longer working (WAITS.COM and/or WAITER.COM in my menus). No longer functional is QEdit, the best text-operating application ever, one of the best computer programs ever! The replacement, by Microsoft, EDIT part of QBasic, later part of CMD, no longer works, either! QEdit is already dead, the Microsoft henchmen roared!

Hey, even Microsoft's greatest programming tool ever, Visual Basic 6, does not work properly under Vista! The programmer receives a serious warning, before attempting to write a new program in VB6! Yeah, right! Upgrade to the new Microsoft programming tools! It's about elimination, stupid! Don't you realize that Microsoft creates programming tools so that no mere mortals can program — ever? Only Microsoft, if they find enough zombies, will be allowed to create software? Google, too? Where do they find that many zombies, though? In China? By the way, if the Chinese, already on that path, would reach the level of consumerism of the U.S. Americans, the human civilization would need five extra planets exactly like the Earth! At last check, no such planets are to be located within a one million light year radius.

I can still write software in Visual Basic and, especially, Power Basic Console Compiler. I will still write and publish soon that application for Powerball / Mega Millions (in the manner of Software Lotto). I know, I must hurry to finalize the software with all them generating features enabled (for myself, just for now). Then, play and win, before the bastards act even more viciously in the quest to bring me under (ground, they hope).

Problem: Vista did not run properly. My lottery, gambling, and scientific software were warranted non-functional by Vista-64. The menus were the main problem. My 32-bit lottery, gambling, and scientific software runs with no problem under Vista. My software, however, runs best at Command prompt. Microsoft “took care” of me in that regard, too. The command prompt can no longer be configured to run in the 'full screen' mode. Microsoft eliminated that feature as well.

It was clear I had to take radical actions. I needed to keep Windows XP. Problem: My old XP computer showed signs of age. It had serious difficulties running my Powerball software (it was too slow). The monitor also was aged (but not in the same category as wine). I did regret discarding my old PC, but I had no choice. Thus, I had to reconfigure my new computer in such a manner that my old PC were still around.

I adequately backed up the most important files of my old PC. Alas, one can never back up the essential data before upgrading! We realize it only when it hurts most!

There was the hunting season here, in Pennsylvania, USA. I didn't hunt for deer or bear. I hunted for ways to configure my software for dual booting. I wanted to keep the Vista installation that came with my new PC. Perhaps a self-loving tendency caused by the Aero connotation to strikingly beautiful super models.

Other people might be in the situation to hunt for such ways (dual booting, not bear hunting). It can be dangerous. I found out the hard way. Anyway, I want to make it short for anybody else, and thus eliminate the insidious crap. If you wanna dual-reboot, please go to Microsoft. For anything Windows, one must always check the Microsoft site(s) first, second, and thirdly. Curse as much as you like (like I do…but I am aware of Don Quixote's wind mills), Microsoft is still the best place for things-Microsoft.

This article gives you the best instructions on creating a dual-boot system for your PC. Situation: Your PC came pre-installed with Vista and you want Windows XP as a second boot operating system.

"How to dual boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots”

//apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm

You need to copy-and-paste. I avoid placing readable URLs. Things change dramatically, and the search engines, like some of the worst sadists ever, can't wait for the least of things to burn a Webmaster at stakes! Even as we speak, I can't access my my.msn.com page or my hotmail account. I needed to copy that link! One should never trust anyone else fully. One might have to pay a hurtful price later.

You need to print first all instructions on paper. Then have a drink and do nothing until the following day. A backup of your PC and a rehearsal are strongly recommended.

I can only tell you that I had to reinstall Vista two times. I had lost several drivers. I needed to download and reinstall them. I lost also a Dell partition with the recovery of my system ('Restore to factory settings'). Dell, like almost any company in the US, resorts to outsourcing (especially technical support). The result is pathetic. I wasn't born in the U.S., but I know the Roman adagio: “When in Rome do what the Romans do.” You can read more on outsourcing (the bad way) here or on my message board. Forget about it1 (I hate this new Dell keyboard and I won't fix all those capitalization mishaps).

Finally, I set up a dual boot system that works (but not perfectly…I know, I am the philosopher of non-perfection and no absolute-certainty). I still face rough edges any time I boot…which is dual boot. Vista is on C, as it should be, since it was the original operating system installed. My strong advice is to never, ever, install Vista over an XP system! Human progress is primarily technological. Technology is primarily physical. Ideas evolve far slower and far more painfully. Technological progress is far easier than ideological evolution. Humans are prone to kill easier against a new idea than adopting a new technology. When the radio was released to the public, most religious people resisted it as “il diabolo” = “the devil” =”the instrument of Satan”. There is no place on earth now without radio, regardless of the god(s) who rule(s) those swamps…be it New York, or Sahara…or Vatican… How about the Internet? How about the microscope and the viruses it discovered? Still, the idea of evolution is still prone to kill many more human beings.

A Vista system requires superior technology — physical — hardware. Most of your hardware devices will not work, especially with 64-bit Windows Vista. The reverse is true, but in a less painful awakening. Many Windows XP drivers will not work with the new Vista hardware. The good news is that device drivers are more readily available than new hardware. Case in point: My Vista network card did not work under XP. I found easily the XP driver to work with the Vista-network-card.

My system came also with lots of empty drive slots. I got half a dozen ghost disks or so. My Vista system, the main boot, is on drive C:\. I created a D:\ partition on the main disk. I decided to install Windows XP on that partition D:.

This is the final, and successful, dual boot configuration on my system. Vista is on C. It sees XP on drive D. Windows XP was originally on D. However, Windows XP sees itself on H (unreal). Both Vista and XP can access files on each other's partition. It's normal, since both Vista and XP share the same file system (NTFS). I decided to keep common file folders on the Vista partition (C:), since it is the largest. I still must be careful with some file definitions. For example, I run a trial version of Office 2007. The file formats are different. I have to save in previous formats.

I know how important my lottery and gambling and software is for many people. More important than it might be for myself. Keep it and run it — while you can. Until I completely revise and/or update my software, you might need to dual boot Vista + XP. There are users who still run my software under Windows 95/98! Believe it or not, I still keep the old PC with its XP operating system. The XP is still valid and it should be for any PC I buy. Hey, I already paid for that Windows XP! NOT! I had to buy a new Windows XP copy for this new PC, which came with Windows Vista preinstalled!

That's predatory! I hate you, Activation bastard! You are an extortionist, a shark loan of the Mafia era. How many more times should I dual-boot to the ears of your mom and pop? People paid for a PC (hardware) separately from you, the software vendor, even the operating system vendor. I didn't pay separately for hardware and then for software. You say, if the PC dies, the operating system dies! That's ILEEGAL — PREDATORY PRACTICE. You can see the absurdity, stupid! If the software dies — the hardware does not die! I buy new hardware and reinstall that goddamn software

You betta copy this batch file to your root system (e.g. C:\). Just copy and paste all lines to that Notepad and save the text file as M.BAT. As soon as after you launched the CMD (command prompt), you only have to type M (or m) and press that goddamn Enter key. You can add many more commands to that batch file. That's what batch files are for! They can save you millions of keystrokes over a lifetime.

This tip is from my greatest lover, Fugarana Goykova. We met online. She is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen — be it in real world, virtual world, or TV commercials. Fugarana is also an accomplished computer expert. Sooner, you'll discover she is also an accomplished computer programmer. The batch file allows you to set the PATH.

When Fugarana and I started our mornings with computer fire, DOS allowed the user to set the PATH. The dominant PATH was set via a command in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Microsoft have done their best to kill their own father, like Gaia did to kill Chronos, keep Zeus alive and make Zeus the King of that little world (supposed to be the whole world).

Windows, therefore Microsoft, have done the same killing thing after Windows 3.x. DOS, our Chrono(s)(logical) father is dead. We killed DOS in order to survive, like that sucker, Zeus, and his bitch-mother, Gaia, did.

A user could still set the path under Win3x in AUTOEXEC.BAT. Beginning Win2k (Windows 2000 and thereafter), the power user (an intelligent computer user) was depleted of that “privilege”. AUTOEXEC.NT took over, although no edit to that file would have any effect whatsoever. Booting was a god-like Microsoft act.

Setting the PATH is very important when working at the command prompt. Windows itself is just a pretty woman sitting on top of a strong workingman: DOS. There are many things that can be done only by da man, DOS. You can't do a disk check but at the boot time (CHKDISK can be run only as DOS, or non-graphical program). The flashy feminine Windows Explorer can't do even half of the tasks DOS can do. Just search for XCOPY and all its command line switches… Now, yea know what I'm talkin' abou'…

The line

H:\;H:\Q\;H:\LOTTERY\;H:\BAS\;H:\PBCC40\;H:\HORSES\;H:\SPORTS\;%PATH%

shows a variable %PATH%. That's what AUTOEXEC.NT imposes automatically. You want a new path for CMD that also accounts for the system path (%PATH%). My lottery software runs perfectly under Windows XP with this batch file that I type immediately after I clicked the Command prompt shortcut on my desktop. Before that, I configured the command prompt to display blue background with cyan foreground and start in full-screen mode (removed from Vista by sadistic Microsoft bullies). I type m and press the {Enter} key… and I am pretty happy. Thanks, Fugarana, baby!

I know the latest facts. Microsoft came to terms with reality. Not only because of those childish Apple MacOS commercials. MacOS is not the way to start computing for human beings. Yes, we start as kids but we shouldn't start too many things childishly. We gotta be able to grasp productivity things even before we enter reproduction age. MacOS leads kids far from that…to a world of just e-play and no f-real-world reproduction.

Insiders already exposed that Microsoft is working hard at releasing a new version of Windows. A Windows version 7. You look at Vista's two first letters: VI. It is the Roman numeral for 6 (six). I would skip that version VII altogether. I would jump to version VIII (eight). That would be named Octavianus (The Eighth) — The Roman emperor that established the Roman Empire and the second pillar of contemporary civilization.

Octavianus Augustus is very important for at least two accomplishments. First, he established the Rule of Law. A society can only survive for many generations if living by the Rule of Law. Secondly, we number the years according to tribunicia potestas, granted to Octavianus by the Roman Senate. It was kind of a you-are-divine grant… but it turned out to be very useful to humankind. The Christian fanatics still believe that we number history (as BC and AD) in relation to a mythical character, Jesus of Nazareth. In fact, BC should be BCE: Before Common Era (a year before Octavianus was granted tribunicia potestas ('powers of tribune'). That inexistent Jesus of Nazareth would have been born in 26 or 27 BCE and would have been crucified in 6 or 7 CE (Common Era, or after Octavianus Augustus was granted tribunicia potestas… not AD). Year 1 AD would have been either the year of Jesus' birth, or the year of Jesus' crucifixion. Either ain't true, Pope Benedictus XVI, former head of the Inquisition, an impotent Inquisition, for that matter.

Fugarana and I have virtually conceived (as we live and love in the virtual world) the immaculate conception of the perfect operating system. Surprise, surprise! It is DOS! We conceived a DOS with the auto-complete feature. I type, for example, XC and the system displays XCOPY, plus default command line settings. A balloon at the top of the screen would display the main features of the command, plus all command line settings. We hadn't had a DOS nearly as potent as that, when we started all this computing revolution. But we still love DOS! Now, that is the ideal operating system or call it OS!

Fugarana Goykova is a lot like I am. We both dream programming. We wake up and we have an easy task: We just write down in a code editor the source code of them great computer programs we dreamed of last night! She is the one who suggested that I disable the full-combination generating in my latest lottery and lotto software. She helps me also with the creation of the soon-to-be-released lottery software for Powerball/Mega Millions.

We did agree that my full-featured latest great lottery software should not be released to the public, even if we won big (and built that dream hou' on a shark-infested shore…eating shark makes a human as strong as he/she can be…I might be alive only because I eat shark or take shark cartilage pills at the opportune moments). Let's keep the lottery dream alive! If my software, or any other software (NOT! nobody else can do that any time soon), leads to too many winners, the lottery concept would make no sense any more. Few winners and big wins is what gambling is all about.

Fugarana and I only met online. She is as beautiful as graphical computer software would allow you to create a woman. We create software by dreaming. That's how we make children. We virtually conceive in the virtual world. We conceive by procreating computer programs. We are parenting software. We love our kids…

Best of luck!

Closely related:

• Run Software at Command Prompt in Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, 8, 10, including 64-bit OS (the Command Prompt is exactly the same, only harder to create a desktop shortcut).

• A responsive Microsoft fixed Vista woes in a 2009 release: Windows 7: Computer Operating System Done Right
• Windows 8: Schizophrenic Computer Operating System.
• Microsoft Windows 10 Upgrade Ridden by Serious Problems, Errors, Issues.

Home | Search | Help | New Writings | Software | Odds, Generator | Contents | Forums | Sitemap