Yup. Minimal Internet, so I will only be on a few times in between now and then.

Looking forward to some of the best coffee I've ever found...

This weekend I have finally been able to install the Windows 7 release candidate on my computer. I'd actually downloaded it yesterday, but my paltry 700 MB CDs aren't big enough for the ISO, so I had to go to Office Depot today and pick up some 4.7 GB DVDs. In place upgrade from Vista worked fine, though I've been spoiled by quick and easy Ubuntu installations, and had to wait several hours for it to finish. Here's the new desktop:

(It has letterboxing because I have two displays, one of which is smaller than the other)

Windows 7 is excellent. Many nice UI tweaks, particularly in the taskbar.

Additionally, I have a new sticker for my PC case:

Crappy cell phone picture.

Bing. The sticker is for sheer awesome, but I'm undecided on the service. I'm still using Google, though I like Bing's cash back, which I'll definitely be using. Oh, that's Zune software. Points for recognizing albums.

Microsoft!

(The setting is a large auditorium, filled with every game designer from both the past and present (had it not been for technological limitations, the future would have been included as well). These audience members are talking amongst themselves, wondering why they have been called here.)

carstairs walks to the podium.

carstairs: I suppose you're wondering why I've called you all here today.

(Nods and other affirmations.)

carstairs: The reason you are all locked in this room (Immediate confusion and protest) is for a seminar on basic game design. Specifically, game saves.

(A general outcry. carstairs fires a six-cylinder revolver into the ceiling, and the designers stop immediately. carstairs breaks the gun with his bare hands and tosses it aside.)

In one of Douglas Adams's books, a group of people were described as those who would be first against the wall when the revolution comes. Incidentally, every one of the armed guards surrounding the seven exits is a gamer who has lost data due to poor design choices.

Shigeru Ohmori, you and the Pokemon staff are free to go, as even with ridiculous glitching that should have ****ed my game to hell and back, Pokemon keeps two copies of a save at all times in case it needs to revert to an older one.

Now as for the rest of you...

(Curtain.)

Street Fighter IV has just joined the ranks of the numerous games that have lost their saved data on me. It joins the ranks of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, and many more.

Is it still too much to ask for a failsafe for our hours of hard work?!