2005FPW portrait mode
What’s the secret to getting the Dell 2005FPW monitor into portrait mode? The Dell page on this (and the 2001FP) say you just rotate it and either shazam! you’re all set, or you need to go download new graphics card drivers. Well, I’ve gone to ATI’s website and downloaded the newest Catalyst drivers for the Radeon 9800 and been reminded why I dislike doing this. First, it’s a 24MB download. For a graphics driver. To ATI’s credit, I’ve had a lot better luck getting my drivers upgraded since they switched to this pseudo-monolithic distribution approach (and by “better luck” I mean not having to spend a day rebuilding my machine because I left out crucial step 7.1 of the upgrade process: sprinkling fairy dust around to ward off the gods of ATI driver machine hosing malevolence). So OK, a 24MB graphics driver. But then the driver depends on the .NET Framework. What? I’m jiggy with intermediate execution environments, but is this really easier than building a menu system that works across OSes? I’m installing a driver, not some sophistocated application so why should it rely on the framework? Whatever, I have the framework, so fine. Finally - during the install I’m told the custom setup is going to consume 64MB of space. I really can’t understand this, either, but this is a Hobson’s Choice, so now I’m ready to reboot. I just hope I sprinkled enough fairy dust.