gogogadgetearl . casey's thoughts

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2007.05.06

  • in the post just below, i exclaimed how i like vista. this weekend, that almost changed. i bought a new mouse saturday. a microsoft mouse. i thought with vista you should be able to simply plug the usb mouse in and the os would go "hey, i know what this is, my maker is the same maker, lemme go ahead and install this for you. no cd needed" i was wrong . . . kind of.

    it did recognize the mouse. the "driver needs installation" box gave it the exact title. it, however, prompted for the installation cd. no biggie. i did keep the disc, i just thought i shouldn't need it. i insert the cd. the installer scans it for the driver. IT DOESN'T FIND IT. it's a friggin' MICROSOFT PRODUCT! HOW CAN IT NOT FIND THE DRIVER ON THE CD MADE BY THE SAME COMPANY????? DOUBLE-U TEA EFF, MATE??

    "okay, okay. calm down. i'll just run the setup from the installation cd." this whole time of course, i'm using the keyboard. the installation goes fine. i restart the computer. the login screen for vista appears after a few seconds. "woohoo, i can use the mouse now!!" i login. i move the mouse around, showing off how it can select and move files and such. but wait. only a few seconds into vista and what's this?? that same "driver needs installation" box for the mouse? "but how? i JUST installed it. I'M FRIGGIN' USING IT! COME ON, VISTA, DON'T BE AN IDIOT! IT'S ALREADY DONE!"

    "i know. i'll just tell it to not ask me to install it ever again. yes i want to confirm this action. okay, got that out of the way. WHAT?? WHAT??? AMMITDAY!! i've lost my mouse. i can't move it again!!!!"

    back to the keyboard. uninstall the software. uninstall the  driver from the device manager. restart the computer. reinstall the software. restart the computer. "i can use the mouse again" there's that blasted "driver needs installation" box. "cancel . . . mmm . . . i can still use the mouse . . . that is dumb as hades"

    that's where i was saturday evening. i was frustrated that i'd have to cancel everytime i restart the computer, but i was willing to deal with it, cause i know ms will fix it . . . eventually. then today, i hooked up another sata hard drive. it had the same problem. "okay two things to cancel everytime i restart. i can still deal with that." then, just an hour or two ago i plugged in a usb stick. "your device can perform faster ...blah blah blah" "what are you talking about? it is a 2.0 port. ...what do you mean there's NO HI-SPEED PORTS ON THIS MACHINE?"

    i searched high and low for drivers. finally, i was on the brink of quitting vista. i did one more search. one more link. and then... "HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!" i could hear Handel's Messiah inside my head. i finally found someone that had the same troubles like me. his dealt with an mp3 player. "For some users using Vista Ultimate, Windows forgets where it puts all the installed drivers, so even though you install it Windows thinks they dont exist." i'm using Business, but i'm guessing it's the same thing. he continues to explain how to let the initial installation fail and then gives the directory for where to make vista look, "C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository"

    i go into the device manager. the hard drive and the mouse have question marks by them, two "unknown devices" have exclamation points (i believe). all four of the devices i "reinstall drivers" for . . . and sure enough, browsing to that directory seems to have solved all the problems.

    "vista, honey, you were 'this close' to termination."        [8 comments]

2007.05.04

  • i am all about eye candy. for years i hated macs. then osx came around and i wasn't quite as negative about it. over the last couple of years, i've really come to love it. and it's mostly because of the eye candy. that's why when vista came out, i got pretty excited . . . it's the os i know with lots of sleek looks and (relatively) not bad on power consumption. i've been using it for the last month or two. and i like it a whole lot. still, there are many things that aggravate me. one such thing was the loss of the "common tasks" pane. i am a downloader. i mostly download tv shows. i download them in rar files to one folder, extract the video into another folder, then i move the videos to the appropriate folder for that show (separated by what weekly night each program airs). in xp, i could simply glide my mouse over to the common tasks pane and move the video to the folder of my choosing. for the last month, i have been cutting, pasting, browsing back, selecting the new folder, cutting, pasting, rinse and repeat. quite aggravating indeed. tonight i did a search and after a few minutes, i found this beauty: "Add Copy To/Move To to the Windows Context Menu". it took me another search and a few more minutes to figure out how to open Vista's registry editor (you have to search for "regedit" and choose the adminstrator version of the program), but after that was open and the keys were added my tv show arrangements went by much quicker.        [4 comments]

2007.04.23

  • this weekend i saw the DUMBEST bumper sticker ever. all it said was "TRUST WOMEN," with the symbol for women as the "O". there was a website address, but it was too small to read. seriously though, that bumper sticker makes as much sense as "TRUST THE GOVERNMENT" or "HERPES REALLY ISN'T THAT BAD"--you simply cannot make a blanketed statement like that.
    at worst, men think with their junk. at best, women think with their emotions. why the heck would you want to trust that?        [1 comment]

2007.03.24

  • i'm sad. i think i may have killed my computer. my baby. my first love.

    just a little less than 3 years ago i built a computer for the very first time.

    i had recently put the computer in the living room, to use it as my media center pc. i put it in a **wooden** entertainment shelf. looking back, i should have realized that the air flow would be almost nil in such a place.
    i had noticed the computer fans fluctuating in speed the past couple of days. i didn't think much of it. but, after the computer was on for about 10 minutes today, it beeped at me (warning sound that it's too hot) and immediately shut off.

    i haven't been able to get it to turn back on. i let it cool off. i set a box fan in front of it. then i made sure the thermal goo was still good. it certainly doesn't smell like the processor fried--but i just don't know.

    i struggled with getting the heatsink back on. i think i may have damaged the mobo during the process.
    now, when i plug it up, the fans spin up, then stops, the mobo displays a few codes, then beeps, then repeats the process.

    i found a forum topic with a guy who had a similar situation. he had to get a new motherboard.
    i haven't given up completely. i'm gonna tinker with it some more tomorrow. but, honestly, i don't have high hopes.        [0 comments]

2007.02.23

  • Steven Segal has his own energy drink.

    After you're done reading the Winter Warning message, be sure to check out xoxide's full site. it's all the cool computer stuff you want that newegg doesn't carry. they even have madcrazy deals once a month, just look for operation x.        [0 comments]

2007.02.14

  • thanks to a close friend, colby, brandon and i have become big fans of a british tv car show, entitled top gear. this week's latest episode, the three hosts went to america and bought 3 cars for 1000 bucks each, rather than rent some for the week.  they started in miami and had to make it to new orleans. they did it, but they encountered many obstacles along the way. the funniest (and scariest) one of them all, however: ALABAMA. in their travels, they were given challenges along the way. for the hundred miles or so through AL, they got to paint each other's vehicles in the hopes of getting each other arrested or shot at. what happened was close enough. in case you don't catch it, the truck has "man love rules ok" written on it and the camaro has "country and western is rubbish." to watch the whole hour long episode (that's right, brits don't have commercials during their programs), go torrent it over at eztv, you won't be sorry.        [1 comment]

2007.02.13

  • sometimes i open a folder then i open a browser, then a chat client, then, well you get the point. call me a stickler, but i like my taskbar to list the programs/folders in a particular way. i have even found myself closing out programs just to reopen them so they list the particular way i want them to for the time being. well, i no longer have to do that, thanks to Taskix. it's a simple little program that's actually free. found on lockergnome.        [1 comment]

2007.01.28

  • it has been a long time . . . but i hope i'll be able to get back into the swing of things and post some goodies for you guys here in the near future. for now, something i believe we all can enjoy . . . britain's MAC commercials. and here's a bonus link: quicktime alternative. that's right, you don't have to use quicktime any more. installing this thing will play .mov's in wmp which is p.i.m.p. (oh the irony of watching apple videos in an anti-apple player) and once you're done downloading that little beauty, why not check out the site that hosts the proggie: filehippo.com? it's got all kinds of free goodies.

    more awesomeness shall come later.        [1 comment]

2006.10.16

  • Sony shoots self in foot . . . again . . . and again.
    if you haven't been living under a rock for the last year, then you know that the PS3 is gonna cost 600 bucks for the true system (ouch number 1--big nasty bruise). and some games like madden and gran turismo hd are rumored to have very little unlockables (in comparison to previous versions) but a ton of "purchasables" [that's my title] (ouch number 2--finger chopped off). and in case you didn't know, the launch title lineup is anything but stellar  (ouch number 3--entire arm dismembered). but what i was shown today that just might hammer the nail in the coffin for me, is this--hd cables will have to be bought separately (ouch number 4--now on life support). sure the cable is probably gonna cost about 50 bucks ("what's another 50 when i'm already paying 600 not including taxes?"), but for me, the PS3 had two things going for it--MGS4 and Blu-Ray at 1080p. currently, there is no way i can justify paying over 800 smackers for 1 video game and some movies i can watch in 1080i with a 360. sony, sony, sony . . . wtf, mate?        [7 comments]

2006.10.14

  • **Originally from the login customization screen comments**

    OK, I didn't know where to post this, so I found the next closest thing, a post about computers.  Have you seen this? Simply Absurd.  There goes my chance of upgrading or recovering from a crash anytime soon.
    o posted by: claryam
    o [ 2006.10.13 | 2:23:05pm ]

    have faith, there will always be *a way* around such things. though at initial reading, it is quite upsettings. either microsoft will come to its senses, or (more likely) within a few months of it first release, there will be hacks for ways around it.
    o posted by: casey
    o [ 2006.10.14 | 7:44:47am ]

    That's just it.  I don't want a hack this time, I want to go legit, to have my own copy and not have to be constantly looking for cracked patches or temporary solutions.  It's crap like this that only makes it harder for "bad people" to do the right thing, while giving good people the opportunity to turn likewise.
    o posted by: claryam
    o [ 2006.10.14 | 11:08:01am ]

    to me, it depends on your definition of "legitimate." i agree with you. i plan on getting a true copy of vista ultimate. and, if it so happens that, for some reason, i need to reinstall it on a third machine, in my mind i'm still legitimately doing so, even if i have to use a work-around of sorts. it's not my fault some Microsoft people have their heads up their arses.

    plus, from what i read, and based upon how it previously was done, the transferrable license is generally automatic, meaning Microsoft does not have to actually get involved (you uninstall windows from one machine and then install it on a different computer--license transferred). it seems very possible that all that will be needed is for an owner of a legit copy to call old Bill up and say 'gimme a new key' or something and then everything is kosher again.
    o posted by: casey
    o [ 2006.10.14 | 2:35:52pm ]

    moving thread to own post :-)
    o posted by: casey
    o [ 2006.10.15 | 1:03:52am ]
    ****

    What about you guys? What are your thoughts on Vista limiting license transfers? Would you consider it ethical to use a "not-exactly-legal" program/file/hack to reinstall a product you actually own? to me it's like purchasing a music cd, making a copy of it, accidentally breaking the original, decide to make a copy of the copy, and then being notified that if one of those breaks i can't make another backup copy. that seems absolutely asinine to me, especially in the case of Vista, where you aren't even having 3 copies out at one time.        [5 comments]

2006.10.12

  • the peoples at stardock have done it again. they've created another great free program. this time it's for customizing your  XP login screen. apparently it's been around for a while, but i had never noticed it. once you get it installed, go visit wincustomize for some great logon screens.        [0 comments]

2006.10.10

  • mozdev has just about any Firefox extension you could want (if you can't find it on the Main Firefox Extensions page). one of my favorites is the search engines list. the only problem is that there have been times when i wanted a search engine that simply wasn't there. today, however, when i visited Firefox's page for search engines, they mentioned this thing called Rollyo. now, if mozdev doesn't have it, i can simply make my own search engine, how awesome is that?        [0 comments]

2006.10.03

  • so i have been wanting rudy giuliani to run in '08, but if he doesn't than i hope to God, this is for real. i would so vote for him. according to the FAQ, the "platform is being written by Mr. Walken himself," so maybe it's legit . . . ?        [4 comments]

2006.09.22

2006.08.05

2006.07.24

2006.07.21

2006.07.11

  • so this fan-made halo game has been out for a while, but i had no idea it existed . . . until today. i haven't actually played it, so let me know how it is.        [1 comment]

2006.06.29

2006.06.08

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