Bee Nut...

Bee Nut? Seriously?!...

Yeah, well... If you can come up with a better title feel free.
The bee doesn't have anything to do with the post other than I thought it looked cool to create the animated gif. The nut does. And the story goes like this...

Walking along the isle roads about twenty miles south of here one weekend a couple January's ago with all the Christmas trees from the holidays stacked along side the road. Wisps of tinsel still lingering in their dead drying out branches.

In passing by one such pile a glint of metal in the afternoon sun from one of the trunks caught my eye. Curious, I stopped to see just what it was. A piece of metal protruded from the trunk under the bark. I broke out my pocket knife and dug it out.

Hark! It was a nut stuck in the trunk from a tree stand.  The very nut in the first image in this post. Not being one to just toss it on the ground, I stuck it in my pocket. Later that evening put it in with the rest of mixed nuts I've collected over time.

Fast forward to today.. over a year later. Someone moving out apparently left behind some stuff they didn't want. One of those items being a Christmas tree holder. What was wrong with it... It was missing a single nut. The exact same kind of nut, I had found in a Christmas tree beside the road twenty miles away over a year ago.

So I replaced it with the one I had. Perfect fit! The missing glass slipper of this Christmas tree stand I say!

This is the point in the story where I could wrap a newspaper round my head and jive you with some cosmic debris about destiny or the butterfly effect our even go into a what are the odds spiel. And I'm admittedly tempted to do just that. I won't but it is one I'll let you ponder on later this evening or one day while looking up at the stars asking some philosophical questions no one but you at that very moment gives a shit about the answers to.

So what's the point of the story? The point is I fixed the Christmas tree stand with a nut I found in a Christmas tree over a year ago twenty miles from here. And had I not saved that nut... the stand would still be broken. But it's not. For behold.. I giveth you a Christmas tree stand that yet again can hold a Christmas tree till it dies before you once again.

Besides, I fixed something else today and I'm bored of that story...

So behold young grasshopper, as I unveal yet another dead discarded item I breathed life into once again.

This one discarded by yours truly. Not really discarded more like shelved it.

This is a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop. A Dell XP media center. See, I have proof...

I had installed at one point Win7 but it ran like crap. I didn't have the original disks so... I shelved it.

In needing the laptop bag this was in for another I took this one out again. I stripped it all down thinking I was just going to toss it and by chance I just happened to search for WinXp MCE online and found there's a few sites hosting legacy software. Including various OS's, such as the Dell WinXp Media Center 2005 install disk. The orange disk I learned it's referred to as. I found a couple versions, one SP2 and another SP3.

But... The SP2 version requires a DVD for install.
What!? A DVD!?!
Do you  know how long it's been since I burned a DVD? I'm asking... it's been so long I don't remember and I was hoping you might know.

I do have some DVD's, packed away in a box, in my storage unit but finding that box. Not happening.

Buying a stack of ten when I only need one.. not happening. Luckily an acquaintance  who records quite a bit had some and so I was able to burn the disc.

So I put the Inspiron all back together. Installed a newer better DVD reader/writer in it. Maxed out the RAM. And began the install.

It has been a while since I dealt with WinXP. I forgot what it was like to babysit the install. It's not that bad but it's not like things are today with Win10.

Everything went nice during the install. With the first install being the SP2 version And with the SP2 version  the machine ran like a bat out hell. Faster than my newer Win10 machine in fact. And it was nice to see that welcome screen... Remember it?

I had thought about installing a custom gamers version of WinXp I have. Which, you talk about light weight and meant for speed. That version is definitely it. It screams. After thinking it over though I wanted to put this one back to factory. And since I'm going to be letting it go, best to install the SP3 version. Which this happened to be the final version MS released.

Some notable differences in the install. It's not quite the bat out of hell running system with SP3 on it. There's a noticeable difference in speed and the look changed as well. If I were keeping it, I'd go back to SP2 and use it offline.

And speaking of factory, it's nice to see Dell keeps drivers hosted for their older machines. Which both versions required audio and video driver installations. Another big difference between then and now. Win 10 goes and finds everything and installs it for your particular machine. At least that was my experience with Win10.

There are some very cool features to this laptop. The front media center buttons seen in the image below I've always liked.

There's other cool features on it as well that I won't get into. This isn't a review of a legacy machine. The main thing is it's up an running again. And runs great even with SP3 on it.

This laptop served me well and hopefully it can serve someone else just as well. With all the legacy software I have that I can't afford the latest version or sometimes even find that ran on XP. There's been plenty of times I wish I had an XP machine set up. I mean a kick ass desktop version. Maybe someone else feels the same. This Dell Inspiron just might serve their purpose.

Anyway...

That's a couple more things repaired and ready.

Till next time,
Stay creative, stay Happy.
Cheers...