If you are a peon of the evil empire and are planning to update to Windows XP, make sure that you keep a D whistle with you. At nearly the end of the hour or two it takes, it will put up some configuration screens and play some relatively insipid but catchy background music. I had my Shaw D in hand to relieve the boredom, and was delighted to find that it was a perfect backing for some jamming on a D whistle. I just let it play for half an hour or so, ignored the screens and jammed along. A cool piece of pleasure in a slice of purgotary.
PS I love my Shaw D, I don’t know why some on this board hate them so.
But I would caution you Blackhawk about thinking of playing it when you’re bored. I have recently was listening to a person tell me a really boring story and had the overwhelming urge to get a whistle, any whistle and start up…Very antisocial.
Ha! They’re (family) all out of town and I got in four hours tonight (lady upstairs moved away)!!! I have revised my assessment of the Tin Whistle Legends tunebook. As long as you know where to cross out notes and put in rolls, its a pretty good collection of tunes.
Ah, Windows XP… If there was ever an invention that promotes tin whistling, it’s a Windows upgrade. For these upgrades, quite contrary to what I would expect, do not do all that the previous incarnation did AND MORE… a new Windows keeps what it danged well pleases and then declares itself too good to consort with the likes of those old programs you used to use without difficulty.
My pretty husband is a computer consultant who actually knows something about computers and further has the scorn so often seen in his ilk for those who don’t know everything he does about them (and who can’t look up in the manual something they don’t have a name for). This clever young man every so often decides that he can’t stand our computer the way it is one more minute and runs out to upgrade to whatever he uses at work. He sits through an evening and practically breastfeeds the computer, then once whatever is installed, throws himself onto the couch and falls asleep.
Here comes his unsuspecting wife to check her e-mail, maybe surf the 'net a little… But wait. First she gets a message about com1 port something not working. That sounds bad. Clicks OK… oh, it’s working fine. Whatever. Tries to open the internet… password? What password? He had it set up to remember that… never even mentioned it. I don’t even know what screen name he used… some random array of numbers… ARGH! And he doesn’t like it when I call him a tyrant! Called him a despot last time, for variety.
Windows XP. The reason some of my favorite games are now defunct. Ditto my daughter’s games. And people tell me it must be great to have a husband who knows so much about computers. Not really… I almost think customer support would get back to me quicker.
But I sure am coming along great with my whistling!
I got a new computer pre-loaded with XP 6 months ago; no probs at all. BUT - do NOT EVER load Roxio CD burner software; it crashed my entire HDD requiring a new one from Dell. I lost ALL data, and when I spoke to Dell customer support they said “oh yeah, Roxio can do that” (and that includes the so-called Roxio XP updated Platinum version too). Now I’ve gone completely OT…
XP doesn’t really seem to add much (if anything)…I still run 98 and it does everything I need it to, which is run games and burn CD’s.
I dual boot and do almost everything else in Linux, which is my OS of choice.
As for Roxio I’ve had good luck with their software, but your mileage may vary.
Definitely this is the first time I’ve heard of software being accused for a hard drive (hardware) failure. Now if you tell me it hopelessly corrupted Windows files, I’ll be more inclined to agree, as Windows of any flavor can be quite fragile to being pranged by new software. I don’t see by what mechanism it could physically damage the hard drive though.
I can say that in the ten years I’ve been a certified technician, I’ve never seen any software except for a virus actually damage hardware. Usually when drives fail it is due to either mechanical problems in the disk assembly (the “click of death”) or more rarely electrical problems in the on-drive controller boards.
And to return to topic…I keep several whistles by my computer, and am frequently a “whistle-surfer,” noodling away on some tune or other while reading on the web.
You know, the Shaw is awesome. I put it down for a while to play a Sweetone with the band, I think out of laziness. The Shaw requires more air. I started picking it up again during shows and just loved the tone. I think a whistle with a wooden fipple is a requirement in a player’s arsenal. Mine anyway. Makes those appalachian tunes sound great.
On 2002-07-15 23:01, fatveg wrote:
At nearly the end of the hour or two it takes, it will put up some configuration screens and play some relatively insipid but catchy background music
OK, I’ve found it – If you want to know what I’m on about, and you have XP, search (include hidden) for title.wma, on my machine it’s in windows/system32/oobe/images. Starts as a riff on an Am chord, then Em (good for D whistle), then who knows…
On 2002-07-16 02:18, The Weekenders wrote:
But I would caution you Blackhawk about thinking of playing it when you’re bored. I have recently was listening to a person tell me a really boring story and had the overwhelming urge to get a whistle, any whistle and start up…Very antisocial.
I guess the trick is to keep it from becoming a reflex!
On 2002-07-16 10:37, thurlowe wrote:
The Shaw requires more air.
Hey Thurlowe, are you a Brit? Your talent for understatement is impressive!
Maybe I just got a bad Shaw, but mine requires three lungs! And the holes aren’t in line with the mouthpiece. I love my Clarke Original, but the Shaw is totally beyond my primitive comfort range. I have to break off in the middle of a triplet for mouth to mouth resucitation.
On 2002-07-16 10:37, thurlowe wrote:
The Shaw requires more air.
Hey Thurlowe, are you a Brit? Your talent for understatement is impressive!
Maybe I just got a bad Shaw, but mine requires three lungs! And the holes aren’t in line with the mouthpiece. I love my Clarke Original, but the Shaw is totally beyond my primitive comfort range. I have to break off in the middle of a triplet for mouth to mouth resucitation.
If that’s an example of British understatement, Shaws should be outlawed. Maybe you could run a tube from your car exhaust pipe to the fipple and rev the engine up. Might get a bit hot to the fingers, though.
Tony
Here’s a suggestion (just had to say this and I know I’m gonna get yelled at by you all ): GET A MAC!!! And then you can download all your fav. whistle tracks to iTunes and play along. And then you can burn it all on to a CD!! Wow! Amazing!
I guess the trick is to keep it from becoming a reflex!
): GET A MAC!!! And then you can download all your fav. whistle tracks to iTunes and play along. And then you can burn it all on to a CD!! Wow! Amazing!