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It's been a long time since I read it, but I remember enjoying "The Soul of a New Machine", by Tracy Kidder. It covers the efforts of Data General to create a new minicomputer to compete with the DEC Vax.
Keep Calm and Carry On
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Soul of a new machine
possibly my favourite non-fiction book
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I've taken a look at that book before. I'll have to circle back and check it out again.
Thanks for the recommendation. 
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I wanted to post the same. I love that book. Crazy stuff that went down before the PC days, or at least before the ubiquitous PC days.
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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I also read it when it came out and definitely second your recommendation.
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So I had a car-related need to install Windows 7 on a a 12-year Acer Aspire 5520 old laptop (that was running Linux). The laptop only has 4gb RAM (maxed out), so I figured doing a VM would needlessly inhibit Windows' performance, hence the clean Win7 install.
I have been in update hell for two days. It seems that when you get updates for a fresh Win7/SP1 install, you have to do the "important" updates in a specific order, because Windows Update isn't smart enough to apply updates that span 8 years in the correct order.
Also, I tried first updating the wireless, ethernet, and video drivers via Windows Update, and all that did was make the laptop completely unbootable. I'm thinking that might be caused by the need to apply 118 "important" updates.
Now that it's completely failed on me a few times, I'm gun-shy, and am only applying updates a few at a time.
All this so I can install a single application...
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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For all it's imperfections W10's single monthly update combined with the requirement to be using a 2 or less year old base OS install actually fixed the even worse problems with prior versions zillion independent patches.
OTOH there's no reason MS couldn't've mitigated much of the pain by releasing fully patched ISOs outside of the service pack cycle to offer relatively current baselines to start with.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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What would have been really nice is sowing the date of the update in the update review form, so you could apply them in order.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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that too.
IIRC the last time I had to patch up a W7 system I eventually just did a top 8(16?) patches on the list at a time cycle and when a batch failed due to an apparently missing dependency just bisected down to which it was and then left it to go to the back of the queue.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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Yeah, that's what I'm doing now... :/
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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Yes 4 GB is not enough, I can't even run the new PgAdmin4 tool for PostgreSQL.
This tool is Electron based and not an improvement as far as I'm concerned.
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Well, the application I needed to install appears to be find with it, so that's all that matters right now. Since the laptop is going to be living in my garage, I don't want to use my much newer Dell with 32gb RAM. Maybe one day I'll buy a used quad core with 8-16gb but right now, the dinosaur box will fill the need. 
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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Have you looked at catalog.update.microsoft.com[^]?
I'll admit, you have to search and page through to find Windows 7 stuff, but there are cumulative update packages out there for it. They don't have the ordering issues you're seeing, at least in my experience.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Daniel's answer above is a good place to start, but I question whether the updates he's suggesting might be obsolete. I do remember that at some point, what used to be the best path to installing the whole series of Win7 patches got broken and what used to work well no longer did.
The latest notes I have on this topic (which I apparently last edited in 2019) assume you've already installed Win7+SP1 (there are ISOs with the SP already slipstreamed into it). From that starting point, install:
KB3138612
then
KB3145739
Reboot if prompted by either updates. For good measure, reboot anyway even if not prompted after the second one.
Then, scanning for the remaining updates should no longer take hours.
Do what you will with this information. It's the best I have, and the last time I tried it, scanning time was cut down tremendously.
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It's aliexpress, so quality is always in question, or missing altogether.
So, you can take over the world, but for how long? 
modified 12-May-21 7:23am.
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You can2take over the world until you have a skull-shaped island in a part of the ocean never visited by ships of photographed by satellites. It's part of the Evil Villain Code. 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Don't forget the underground lair in an extinct(ish) volcano!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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I'm not sure this world is worth taking over. 
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I think the world might be a kinder place if you took over.
I am sure the world would be more interesting !
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
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Not sure that watch helps to get world domination, but I am eager to know what you will be making out of it.
A contrario, buying from aliexpress (or amazon) is definitely helping someone to get world domination. 
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i usually avoid them but they are good for finding hard to find electronics like this.
Real programmers use butterflies
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