Computer Woes, Part Deux...

Well, it looks like my desktop has joined the bleeding choir invisible. The power supply was indeed gone but, apparently, it took the motherboard with it. Guess I'm now in the market for a barebones kit to add my components into.

I'll need a motherboard that has an AGP video slot and I may need new ram chips as my old comp used DDR ram as opposed to DDR2. Fortunately, the new power supply and hard drives are fine. Might as well add a DVD Rom drive while I'm at it.

Any suggestions?

One Set Of Computer Woes Down...

...one to go. Yes, I'm actually posting this from my recliner. Now I'm going to lug my desktop up to my folks for the weekend and see if we can't get it up and running again.

Computer Woes

Computers hate me.

That's really all there is to it. Day before yesterday, I went out and picked myself up a new Acer Aspire One netbook. Last night I sat down and decided that I would break out the old wireless router and do some surfing from the comfort of my recliner.

No sooner do I shut off my desktop to remove the cat5 cable and try to restart than my power supply decides to take a dump. At least, I think that's what it is. It's still down, waiting for one of my coworkers to get me a spare power supply he may have lying around.

Okay, fair enough. This computer has had issues with power supplies in the past and the current one is almost 3 years old. No biggie. I'll just connect my new netbook to the modem and away we'll go.

Wrong.

It won't connect. Not through the wireless card and not through the NIC. Dad and I spent two hours on the phone trying to figure things out and I finally gave up in disgust for the night.

Needless to say, yes, I finally got my netbook connected though I'm still hard-wired to the router as I still can't figure out what I'm doing wrong with the wireless. So, it's not like I'm doing without or anything. But not having access to my desktop's files is going to be a real pain if it turns out that it wasn't the power supply after all.

Too Freaking Hilarious

I can't breathe!

Norton Security Scan

Recently, I've noticed a new program that popped up in the background on my computer. Norton Security Scan had initiated itself and began scanning my computer. I stopped the process, uninstalled NSS (as I hadn't intentionally installed it to begin with) and figured that was that.

The next day, the NSS shortcut was back on my desktop.

Long story short, I uninstalled this program several times and it continued to install itself. After a little Google-fu, I found that Symantec had begun bundling their software into the latest update of Adobe's Shockwave (v. 11) and if you simply updated rather than manually installing, you did not get the option to decline the installation of NSS. Further, there is an issue with a scheduled task stub being left behind that causes Windows to attempt a scheduled scan, recognize that NSS is not installed, and automatically install it!

I have removed the NSS program and stub from my computer using the technique detailed in the last post in that thread. Additionally, because I find their bundling programs without the benefit of an opt-out feature to be unacceptable, Shockwave has been removed from my computer and will not be reinstalled until they apologize and rectify the issue.

New Programs Galore!

Today my computer has seen a number of new programs or updates added.

First and foremost is Scribefire which I am currently using to write this post. I found it via Junyor's latest post. It is basically a text editor that will post directly to a number of blogs (one of which is Blogger, obviously) and is intended specifically for Firefox. I've only been playing around with it for a few minutes but I like what I'm seeing so far.

The next is Firefox 3.0. I just found out this morning from a coworker that this newest version was being offered today. I love Firefox and I'm looking forward to playing with this new version.

Lastly is the Google bar add-on for Firefox 3.0. In case you didn't know, the Google bar will need to be updated when switching to the latest version of Firefox. Thankfully, it's a simple matter to update as Firefox automatically recognizes the incompatability and will download and install the new version itself. From what little I've seen of it so far, it seems to be almost identical to the version I had previously installed.

That's it! Hope this was informative.

Tinkering with Webcams

Friend and fellow blogger Junyor has been playing around recently with a webcam. Me being the shameless copycat that I am and Junyor being the shameless enabler that he is, I ended up buying the same model webcam myself.

He and I played around with some of the streaming websites and messenger apps out there for conferencing and he has posted a well-thought-out review of each on his site. I have watched the video he links in his post and I am in full agreement with his assessments. Go take a look.

Post #100

Well. My 100th post. I should do something special, something big, something meaningful...



...I've got nothin'.


Actually, I'll be going to a barbecue tomorrow afternoon at the new house of some friends from church that I helped move a while back. I'm planning to take my bike but I'm not sure how to take along a lawn chair. I may have to head out to Target tomorrow afternoon to pick up one of those collapsible chairs that have a carry bag.

I passed this past weekend on a planned trip up to Osage Beach in Missouri with my parents and sister. I later found out that they intend to head to Branson Saturday night. Today I got an email from Ron Paul's campaign advertising a rally in Branson tomorrow night. Now I'm wishing I could have gotten the time off to go.

Oh well. You win some, you lose some. I'll probably buy some saddlebags and a mesh jacket for my bike instead.

On a side note, I've ordered a High Noon pancake holster for my Para. UPS' website shows that they've received the billing info but haven't received the package. I'm eager to get it and my earlier order of belt and holster for my CZ 97B. That order will probably be delayed until July, though, due to the made-to-order nature of their belts.

I've also finally ordered a replacement for my dearly departed ergo-keyboard. It has shipped and is sitting in a UPS facility in California at the moment.


Well, what do you know. Not a bad 100th post after all. Managed to get most of the things that I love or consider important stuffed in without too much effort.

This Delay Brought to You by Technical Incompetency.

Whose you ask? Why, mine, of course.

Egad.

All I wanted was to hook my new 26” Sony Bravia to my computer. Apparently, that was too much to ask. First, I had to get a new wireless router since my old one bit the dirt back in Fayetteville and I never bothered to replace it. Then I realized I had removed my wireless card at the same time to make more room around my GeForce video card so that it could have sufficient ventilation. So, I had to have a wireless transceiver (got a USB version). I then decided that I might as well go truly wireless and bought a wireless keyboard and mouse combo pack.

Now here's where the problems reared their ugly heads. The wireless network was most definitely not plug-and-play. After realizing I was in over my head (again), I called tech support (also known as Jason – but tech support sounds much cooler). Between the two of us, we managed to get my network communicating. Kinda. It turns out that the wireless keyboard and mouse I bought were the kind that use a radio signal as opposed to infrared and it managed to interfere with my wireless network. Wonderful.

So, I kicked the new keyboard to the curb and went back to my old keyboard. Who apparently managed to give up the ghost when I disconnected it the last time. At that point I could just hear the new keyboard chuckling. “I knew you'd be back.” I hooked it up just long enough to get the computer back to it's old video settings and just called it quits.

That was on April 31.

I finally threw up the white flag and have resumed using my flat- and wide-screen LCD monitor. The sacrifices we make.

And while typing this, I realize that my wireless keyboard simply isn't going to work. It's cramped and not nearly as sensitive as my old ergo-keyboard. I've decided that wireless simply isn't for me. I've looked up a nice new ergo-keyboard with USB connection for about $35 online. I'll be ordering it soon.

New Look

As you have probably noticed, I've changed the look of the blog. I actually used one of the templates on file with blogspot. I much prefer the layout but I'm not sure about the color scheme.

'Course, D will attest that I (and him, too, he'd be quick to point out) am color deaf.

Let me know what you think.

Good Company, Good Books, and a Crappy Connection

Well, my sister came by to visit this weekend. I had ended up taking both Thursday and Friday off due to my ill-health and she was kind enough to run to the store after getting here Friday afternoon and load me up with drugs. NyQuil is my daddy.

She ended up sticking around 'til around 6 Saturday evening. She had never seen the second or third installments of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy so we watched those in three installments of 2-4 hours each. By the time she left I was feeling mucho better. I went to Cabot to visit D and discuss guns, politics, and housing developments. (Don't ask. We're still in the wishful thinking stages ATM.)

I managed to finish both Animal Farm and MHI over the course of my illness. I would recommend both. Animal Farm would be best described as a cautionary tale about socialist democracies (and possibly governments in general). I'd highly recommend this to those of you who might be dealing with a friend or loved one who's living in a state of denial about the direction that our own government is headed.

MHI was a very fun read and I do recommend it but with one caveat. Please remember that this is author Larry Correia's very first published novel. Unfortunately, the lack of experience shows as "stream of consciousness" writing style in several places. There are several misspellings (in more than one language), run-on sentences, and some sentences that are just down-right constructed poorly. It's obvious that Larry could use the services of a few professional proof-readers. If this is the kind of thing that can distract you from a good story, this might not be the novel for you. However, if you're willing to forgive a few grammatical faux pas in the pursuit of an excellent story arc, then this is something you'll want to read. The story breadth is really astounding for a first-timer (though those of you who've read the Welcome Back, Mr. Nightcrawler thread on THR probably had an inkling of Larry's abilities.) It's almost unfortunate that there have been so very many mainstream vampire/werewolf/zombie blockbuster movies recently as this feels almost like it's trying to use those as a springboard to get more of an audience than it really would otherwise attract. However, as the story progresses, it's obvious that Larry has no intentions of sticking with the same old same old. He manages to use the old horror formulas, throw in a dash of campfire ghost stories, add a generous sprinkling of Lovecraftian lore, and the excellent portrayal of use of a metric ton of the biggest and baddest small arms that you'll never see on the big screen and manages to serve up a novel that is completely new and exciting.

Overall, I'm giving MHI 4 out of 5 smoking .308 casings of approval (with 0.5 deducted for technical writing errors).

Lastly, my internet connection has been flaky for the better part of this last week. It seems like if I go for more than about 3-4 minutes without bringing up a new web page, the ISP drops my connection. I then have to use the repair button on my local area connection icon in the toolbar and everything's fine until I let the connection idle again. I have no idea if this is an ISP issue or if my modem might be flaking out on me (it's about 4 years old now and was getting glitchy before the move anyway). Anyone have any ideas as to what the problem might be?