Computers

Jul 27 2007

another train wreck

I am watching local news coverage of the annual hydroplane races from Tri-Cities Washington, and, man, I had forgotten how bad it is there. Obviously they don’t have a very deep talent pool to pick from, but… gosh! Watching this news is a lot like listening to some talkshoe.com podcasts. They’re so unprofessional/badly produced that you almost feel embarrassed for the people involved.
Anyways, I sure am glad that I get to watch what I’m watching. I just wish it was put together a little better. You can watch along too, but I’m not exactly sure how much they’re going to be showing online. I think they will be showing a lot of racing/practicing/qualifying on Saturday, and of course a full day of racing on Sunday.
Also, I don’t watch the local Miami news too often, so it could be just as bad, but not that I’ve seen.

By • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Jul 6 2007

turn on brain, plz!

So… Maybe I’m a little jaded or something, but don’t you think a person would have gotten the hint that I’m not too interested in chatting with them by now?

I have no clue who this person is, but they’ve been on my Yahoo! messenger buddy list for a while. Here’s how tonight’s conversation is going…

fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:08:37 PM): hello bor
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:08:43 PM): hello man
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:09:39 PM): hi
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:11:48 PM): cool bro

fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:11:59 PM): u know, we havent really talked well

Hide Recent Messages (F3)

fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:14:50 PM): u there ??
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:14:57 PM): yes
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:16:07 PM): are u in the UK ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:16:42 PM): no, us.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:16:48 PM): k
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:16:54 PM): wat u do ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:17:57 PM): not much.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:18:55 PM): really
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:19:07 PM): dont tell me u sit around all day
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:22:48 PM):
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:22:57 PM): got a wife ?
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:28:25 PM): u there /?
BUZZ!!!
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:32:21 PM): no wife.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:32:29 PM): um
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:32:33 PM): g f
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:32:37 PM): no
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:32:54 PM): um
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:33:00 PM): so wats up wiht u ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:33:15 PM): very little.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:33:43 PM): lol
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:33:46 PM): i can see
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:33:56 PM): so why dont u care for a woman ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:34:26 PM): too much trouble.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:34:39 PM): really
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:34:52 PM): so bro tell me, are u a mafia ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:35:24 PM): i don’t think so.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:35:42 PM): u dont
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:35:56 PM): well wats ur drive
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:36:38 PM): i have none.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:36:49 PM): k
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:37:06 PM): well i am into mafia stuff
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:37:37 PM): life is great
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:37:41 PM): life is sweet
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:39:22 PM): so tell me exatly wat u do bro
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:39:32 PM): we could be close u know
BUZZ!!!
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:44:17 PM): i mostly just watch tv.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:44:43 PM): so how do u get ur money to stay alive ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:45:59 PM): i get money from the atm, just like everyone else.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:46:41 PM): and wats the ATM ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:46:55 PM): cash machine.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:47:41 PM): cash machine?
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:47:55 PM): i dont understand tht?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:51:42 PM): you can look it up on the internet.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:52:03 PM): u tell me
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:52:31 PM): i’d rather not.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:52:44 PM): why ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:54:18 PM): well, what if I make a mistake in my explaination of what an ATM is, and then you’re on some trivia television show where you can win millions of dolars if you can answer a question about an ATM, and you get the answer wrong because I misinformed you? I would feel bad about that.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:54:50 PM): na bro
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:54:55 PM): it cool
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:55:02 PM): i am in Nigeria
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:55:13 PM): cat do dat here
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:55:18 PM): so tell me
fegoson47 has signed out. (7/6/2007 10:57 PM)

By • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: , , ,

Jul 1 2007

are you guys having a killer time?


There are so many things in life that I just don’t get. Like why do men have nipples? Or, why can’t people figure out the difference between “then” and “than”? Why do I get so annoyed by bad grammar, when my own grammar isn’t so polished? But at the top of my list of things I just don’t get has got to be… Why are people reading this??
Seriously? Half a million+ people want to see what I put on these innernets each month? (ok, fine, only 52,002 distinct hosts served, but still… You came back 10+ times?) You do realize that I am fat and lazy and really don’t care about this stuff, right? I mean, I only type the stuff that oozes out of my brain. It takes entirely too much effort for me to scoop out the good stuff. It might be worth it if I were getting paid or something, but in the case of this here web site/blog/waste of space/whatever you want to call it, I actually end up paying for it to be here.
Anyways, I changed the layout a bit because, believe it or not, I actually care a little bit about your well being and I felt that the previous color scheme might be a little too hard on the eyes. I hope you like this one a little more. I have a feeling it might be too wide. You should just get a better computer/bigger monitor. If you don’t like it, please bitch about it in your own blog, and be sure to link here so I will find your banter in my referrers!

Also, if you want to advertise here for the rest of 2007, it will only cost you one 8 GB iPhone. I’m not too good to sell out!

PS (and this is a very important PS): Yvette will flash you her boobs if you go to http://miamirhapsody.blogspot.com/! IT’S TRUE!! I actually can’t stop clicking over to there!

By • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Jul 1 2007

This is how I do it.



Multimedia message, originally uploaded by FANLESS.

Watching MX!

So, this might be pretty nerdy, but I’m fine with that. I am right now watching AMA Motocross from the Red Bud National in Buchanan Michigan, LIVE ON THE INNERNETS zOMGZ!!!
In detail (which is the nerdy part), I have the video playing in Windows Media Player via Windows XP on my iMac, thanks to Parallels. Then on my iMac’s 2nd monitor, I have the same video playing in Quicktime, but delayed a bit so I have an ad-hoc instant replay. I just have to move my head to the right a bit to see what I just saw again. The twist to this is that I’m actually not listening to audio that accompanies the video… I am instead listening to the live audio feed because I have a very non-gay boner for Jason Weigandt, (that was meant as a joke!) and, frankly, I feel that his announcing makes the racing a lot more exciting.
Finally, on my laptop, I am chatting with my buds (just make up a username… leave the password box empty), watching the lap times (I miss being able to color label the riders like I could with the Supercross timing thing), and looking at the track map and just getting annoyed by mototalk people, and extra frustrated that I can’t interact with them because I let my membership lapse and I don’t have $30 ear tagged for a renewal.
If watching MX on the net isn’t your cup of tea, you can watch the 2nd Motocross class moto at 6 PM on Speed!
So, that’s what I’m up to on this rainy first day of July. Come to think of it, this is pretty much how I spent 2 Sundays ago, too. And actually, I guess that if I’m going to paint a picture, I should tell the whole story (WHAT? I have no idea what I just typed!)… My MX Sunday actually started late Saturday night when I was trying to be asleep by midnight so I could wake up by 6 AM so I could watch FIM World Motocross via MediaZone.com, but I ended up falling asleep somewhere around 3! I woke up at 5:50, on the couch, so I loaded the video stream from Sweeden on my iMac (in Windows) and tried to watch it from bed. A few laps into the 1st MX2 moto, I fell asleep. I woke up many laps later, and Josh Coppins was quite a ways back. I think this was the 2nd MX1 moto, but I really can’t remember. I kept waking up, watching a lap or 2, and then falling asleep again. I still don’t know who won the MX2 overall, but I plan on downloading and watching the motos again later tonight, or maybe tomorrow.

I CAN’T WAIT UNTIL I CAN WATCH EVERY AMA MOTOCROSS/SUPERCROSS RACE LIVE ON THE INTERNET!! Even if it’s only the 1st motos like now. It gives me enough of a mental image of whats going on that I can run the 2nd motos in my head. Especially with Jason’s excellent announcing.

P.S. In making this post I pretty much missed the first lites moto. Updating the blog was a bad choice.

By • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Mar 14 2007

fingers crossed

I just received preliminary good news from Apple. It’s not the official good news I have been waiting for; that should be coming later today, but good news none the less.
Soon. SOON, I say, I will once again be able to whole-heartily recommend all things Apple.
You know, it’s really hard to talk someone into dropping a couple Gs on something when the one you own is sitting in its box, dead, in the middle of your apartment.
I think I can now stop pulling my hair out with frustration.

By • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: , ,

Mar 6 2007

things

I hope you like how my blog looks because I don’t. I miss my pink and green! As soon as I have some free time, am in the mood and HAVE MY iMac BACK!! I will get things back to looking how they should.
10 or so days ago I said I bought a 500 GB hard drive and I said I wished I could find a couple 120 GB drives. Well, some good and not so good things have happened since then.
First, there was an issue with my credit card I used to order the 500 GB drive. After a couple of days of talking with computergeeks.com I ended up giving them a different number over the phone. The woman I spoke with said she would just cancel my old order and create a new one with new cc number. I thought all was well until today, when the drive showed up. IT WAS A SATA DRIVE!! I needed an IDE drive. So I called them up and said “HAY U STUPIT FHUKS SENDED ME TEH WRONG DRIVE!!11111” except it was a little more civil than that. The dude I talked to said I ordered a SATA drive and I didn’t really push the issue since he was going to give me an RMA and in house credit. But then I looked at the RMA and it said I needed to pay shipping to send the drive back, AND my credit didn’t cover shipping. So I’m thinking to myself… I paid $9 shipping to get the drive to me, and I’ll probably have to pay at least another $9 to send it back. PLUS another $9 to get the correct drive sent back to me? I DON’T THINK SO!!
So I called computer geeks back and explained the situation a little better and now I’m waiting for a new RMA that covers shipping the wrong drive back. And I got the seekrit kodez to get free shipping when I re-order the correct drive. That made me feel better. I was hoping for an amazon.com type experience where I say “You sent the wrong thing!” and they say “srsly srry d00d! We’ve just sent the correct drive to you. You can send the wrong drive back to us whenever you feel like it and we’ll take care of that shipping.” but I’m not going to bitch too loudly about the thing with computergeeks.com. In the end, I guess I’m happy. It just means a week or 2 more with this crappy drive in my PC that keeps making my computer reboot thanks to FAULTY_HARDWARE_CORRUPTED_PAGE. I so can’t wait until I don’t see that again.
Along the same good news – bad news – ok news lines of hard drives, I happened to be at Office Depot on Sunday, and I saw that they had 100 GB Maxtor drives for $29 after a $50 rebate. Now, I pretty much can’t ever deal with rebates, but small (relatively speaking) drives like that seem to be harder and harder to find, so I scooped one up. I was expecting the bits that I needed to mail in to be printed with my receipt, but all I got was a thing saying I can get $10 off my next purchase of $25 or more. I figured I could just find the rebate online once I got home. But when I got home I found out that the rebate had expired on the day before; on the 3rd. OH NOSE!!1 I hopped back on my bike and rode back to Office Depot. When I was there I took a look to make sure that I hadn’t made a mistake in reading the sign about the price. I had the right drive, but it too said that the rebate expired on the 3rd. I was a little bummed that I would have to keep looking for drives, but I was glad that I hadn’t opened up the drive that I bought. I decided to act a little facetious and asked a dude that was working there where I could find the rebate. He said it would be printed out with my receipt. I told him I just bought one of the drives and I didn’t get a rebate. He looked at the sign and made sure I had the right item and then did a little computer hacking and looked it up online. Then he said he would take care of it and just give it to me for the price with the rebate, but without the bother. So I bought a 2nd drive! The 2 drives at the reduced price were actually about $22 less than the single drive without the rebate. And to top it off, there were actually 120 GB drives in the boxes, instead of the 100 GB labeled. H00ray!!
On the down side, my iMac is STILL dead and I haven’t heard anything after several voice and emails. I should probably try calling Apple again right now. I am so over that computer!

By • Uncategorized • 3 • Tags: , , ,

Feb 26 2007

consum0r

Recently, Brandon and I have put our bikes on a diet. Here is a list of parts I plan on purchasing this week. $900+ is a bit of a tough pill to swallow, but you have to pay to play, I guess. PLZ advise if there are some things on the list that you think are shady, and please suggest alternates. I’ve actually already ordered a different wheelset and the brake. They should be delivered later today. Also, I don’t necessarily want to order from Uncle Dan, so I’m open to suggestions there too. Especially if a 15%+ hook-up is included! Pay attention to how my Pork (somewhat updated pic) looks now because before too long I think the frame will be the only part on it left the same. I hope to get it down to around 25 lbs. I think it’s close to 35 now! I guess buying all of those parts means I won’t be going to the Seattle Supercross this year. I’ll still try to go if a butt-load of money falls into my lap.

In other spending money news, I purchased another 500 GB drive this weekend. Now I can take the 250 GB drive out of one of my firewire enclosures and put it in my PC. The new 500 GB drive will go into the then vacant enclosure. I’d still like to be able to find 2 or 3 120 GB drives for a reasonable price to use up my older Firewire enclosures. It kind of sucks that I can get drives with 2-3x as much storage space for the same amount of money, but they won’t work in these enclosures. I’d like to use 1 120 GB drive as a backup for my iTunes music, and another for my iPhoto backup. I don’t know what exactly I would use the 3rd one for, but I know I could fill it up really quick.

I will be super unhappy if Apple doesn’t call me back at some point today. We are nearing 2 months since my iMac died. I really miss it!

By • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Feb 8 2007

BEST TWITTERER

http://twitter.com/napoleondynamite
Best Twitterer evAr!
Things like this kind of make my day a little better.
(at least it made me smile)

P.S.: This made me smile too!

By • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: ,

Feb 3 2007

hotmail


I’ve been using Hotmail for over 10 years now!

By • Uncategorized • 1 • Tags: , ,

Jan 12 2007

internets

Hello internets,
My iMac is still dead but at this point I think it’s mostly my fault that nothing is changing with that. Whenever there are disruptions in the force and especially when I meet resistance in rectifying the disruption, I tend to just ignore the situation all together. That’s the situation right now. My iMac G5 is sitting in its box in my apartment in the exact same place it has been since I got it home from the Apple store last Wednesday. The thing is a headache I’m not ready to deal with. The Apple store people told me they would repair it for free (for the 4th time – 3rd time in something like the last 8 months) but if I want it replaced then I need to email someone at Apple and beg them to authorize a replacement. Sounds simple enough, but I’m just not ready to face their reply that will likely say “LOL P0WNT!!1” or something to that effect. I’ve heard way too many empty promises over this computer to have any faith in this last resort person I’m supposed to email. Actually, I guess the true last resort would be the legendary sjobs@mac.com email address where according to legend, “Steve Jobs’ personal assistant” will get back to me and set my world straight. I’m not sure if I have enough pull to make that happen, but then all I’d have to do is write an amazing blog post about the saga with this ill iMac and get it dugg on digg.com. I just don’t know if I have all of that in my nature. I’d probably just bend over, take it, and just get the thing fixed for free once again and hope it doesn’t die again.
And that’s the thing that really bothers me the most. I’m really not after a new computer. My iMac G5 does everything I need it to do and keeps me smiling until it dies. All I really want is some faith in my machine. A piece of mind that will allow me to rely on it. I had this iMac G5 for just over 2 months when it died for the first time. That was really disappointing, but I thought all was well when it stayed running for over a year after the initial fix. But since this last rash of breakdowns I am really starting to question the reliability of Apple. If this were my first computer then I might be like “Ok, I guess computers don’t last very long.” I mean, this machine is over 2 years old. But this isn’t my first computer. In fact, I have an Apple Quadra 800 that is around 13 years old and still runs great! And I have my 7.5 year old 350 MHz PowerMac G3 that currently has a 3 week uptime. I’ve never had any problems with either of these computers and I don’t think luck has anything to do with it. Is it unreasonable for me to expect another 5 years of life out of my iMac G5? I don’t think so.
So that’s where things sit with my iMac G5. I need to email this person and hope/pray that they see things from my point of view and authorize the replacement of my computer.

By • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: , , ,

Jan 1 2007

New Jeers!

Once again, my iMac G5 is dead. =( This is now the 4th time (3rd time since May!). I was laying on the couch today, watching Nebraska lose, and all of a sudden I heard the Mac startup chime. If I wasn’t oh-so-familiar with the situation I might have thought my apartment had a ghost.
The poor machine won’t stay running for any amount of time. It just shuts off with no warning.
There SHOULD be a claim number for this computer on file with Apple stating that I have an 8 month warranty after the last time I got it fixed (in September), but that seems a little moot since Apple seems to have changed their Service Extension Program. It used to say it would cover this issue for 2 years after the original purchase date, but now it says 3 years.
HOWEVER… When I inquired about getting a replacement machine in July, after the thing had died for the 3rd time, they told me it had to be FIXED 3 times before they would replace it.
I BETTER GET A NEW FUCKING MACHINE THIS TIME!
I am so over this computer. (I mean my iMac, not this $250, 3 year old eMachine running openSUSE 10.2 I am typing this post on. Probably the best $250 I ever spent.)

By • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: ,

Nov 22 2006

here we aren’t now… entertANUS

Sometimes when I’m at work I get moist with the anticipation of going home.
But then when I get home I’m bored and have trouble finding things to do.
Sometimes I feel like I need a zOMG SO FAST AND CUTTING EDGE computer.
But then I think about it seriously for a minute or two and I’m like… Ok, what can I do with a new computer that I can’t do with the computers I have now?
Well, for one… I could get Beryl to work which is really important because I really REALLY r1lly need burning menus and magical windows and Kiba Dock (I am so glad the Mac OS X dock doesn’t work like this! Do you know how much time I would spend bouncing icons around and not doing work!?)! I could MAYBE get it to work if I spent $100 on a new graphics card and another $100 or so on an additional gig of RAM for my PC. I just don’t think I can get a good enough graphics card because my PC only has a 4x AGP slot. Do I really want to spend that much money to upgrade a 3 year old machine just for wobbly windows and icons bouncing all over my screen? Probably not. I’ve seen videos of this stuff running on machines supposedly less than what Ihave, but I have never been able to get them to work. I can’t even get the desktop effects in Fedora Core 6 to work!
Tonight I came home and got bored. Again. I decided I wanted to get a MAMP stack running on my G3 again. Actually, I think I want to try out lighttpd. In looking to see what all I wanted to install I got sidetracked and ended up spending a few hours reading about rails. I had read all about it a long time ago before “ruby on rails” became a buzz phrase, but I have mostly ignored it in the past many months. A lot has changed since and I think I’m going to spend some time working with it. I think I’ll start with Memphisto blog. I think it might be the next big thing. I thought logahead was going to be a big thing, but it seems to be pretty much dead. I’m kind of bummed because I really liked it. I am still dying to get a photoblog up using OneReaction but Windows hosting with .net support is not cheap. At least not that I’ve found.
Wow, that’s a lot of nerdy stuff. This is how I entertain myself?

By • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: ,

Nov 8 2006

AppleJack or how I almost shit myself

WOW! I almost made bears in my pants tonight because I thought I jacked up my computer (again)!
I was listening to Mac Break Weekly at work today and Merlin Mann of 43 Folders fame was talking about using AppleJack. I had seen AppleJack in my MUMenu a few times so I was somewhat familiar with it, but I had never bothered trying it. Well, tonight I was kind of bored and even though my computer had been running fine and even though there was a warning in big red letters on the MacUpdate.com page for AppleJack to NOT download it, I did anyways.
It installed fine and I booted into single user mode to try it out. Straight away my fans started blasting away, which was normal whenever I would boot into single user mode or when I would get a Kernel Panic. I didn’t really think anything of it. I tried AppleJack and it did its thing and then I booted my computer normally. I downloaded and installed AppleJack on my G3 too and I got the brilliant idea to see if my iMac G5 would run AppleJack much faster than my G3, so I booted both Macs into single user mode. Well, when I went to use AppleJack on my iMac I couldn’t type anything. I figured something happened to my BlueTooth connection for my keyboard (which sometimes happens) so I held down the power button until it shut down. I tried to boot into single user mode again, and that worked, but, again, I couldn’t type anything. I booted my iMac normally again, and that was when I noticed that my fans were still running at full blast. This was when the bears nearly started coming out of my butt! I was like, “Oh, great! Why am I not surprised?”
I shut my computer down again and let it set for a few seconds. I started it up and the fans were still blowing away. I was ready to zap my NVRAM and PRAM and I had thought about unplugging my computer for a bit if that didn’t work, but I decided to read the readme that came with AppleJack first. RIght there in the “Known Issues” section was this little gem:
Some users of G5 systems have reported that the fans ramp up very fast. This is not related to AppleJack, but is due to the fact that the thermal controllers are not loaded while in single user mode. If this condition persists after restarting into Mac OS X, you may have run into one of the many known fan-management bugs. See the apple.com support forums, or macosxhints.com for help.
The fact that a solution wasn’t listed in the readme kept the bears marching towards the exit, but at least I knew I wasn’t alone in experiencing this problem. I headed to macosxhints.com, did a search for “imac g5 fans” and found this. Apparently someone had nearly the exact same problem as me, and they did what I had planned on doing… They unplugged their iMac for a bit and after that their fans were back to their normal speed. I did the same and had similar success. The bears stopped trying to escape from my butt and now my iMac G5 is running as silently as it ever has. H00RAY!!

By • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: , ,