It is thanksgiving in the U.S., and so there the usual news items regarding how many things we have to give thanks for abound. I’m Canadian, so our thanksgiving was a few weeks ago…but our friendly neighbors to the south generate the majority of our news, so we sort of get the benefits of two holidays through a sort of osmosis. Unfortunately, I’m feeling under the weather today, and any time I have a cold or flu I end up feeling a bit sorry for myself- I wasn’t feeling any particular “thankful” vibe today.
Yearly Archives: 2007
William Shatner is a Shaman…
I don’t play World of Warcraft any more- it was fun, but lacked depth. But apparently William Shatner plays WoW, or at least he claims to in a new World of Warcraft television commercial.
Stupid Mac tricks…
In computers, bugs are a fact of life. No matter how much someone might claim that an application or operating system is “perfect”, the truth is always quite different.
Take the Macintosh, for example. I’ve been using my MacBook Pro for a while, and am pretty impressed with its behavior. But “bug free? Heck no. Here are a few recent examples of “unexplained” behavior:
Looking for a cool home theatre? Look no further…
I like watching movies in my home. A nice big screen TV, comfy chairs, a DVR or DVD player…I can pause whenever I want, stretch my legs, rewind and re-watch scenes. It can be a better experience than what you get at many commercial theaters these days.
Continue reading Looking for a cool home theatre? Look no further…
Saudi woman sentenced to 200 lashes for the crime of being raped…
I am generally tolerant of different cultures. But after reading about a young woman sentenced in a Saudi court to 200 lashes and six months in jail for the crime of being gang-raped 14 times by seven men…well, tolerance is out the window.
Continue reading Saudi woman sentenced to 200 lashes for the crime of being raped…
I feel a lack of power…
I find the failure of a computer’s power supply to be one of the most difficult failures to diagnose. And earlier this week I had that perception reinforced.
The second computer in my office, the “guest” gaming PC, has become my wife Irene’s primary EverQuest II machine. It is built out of parts replaced by my most recent upgrades: basically, it is a two year old “bleeding edge” computer, which means it is still pretty decent for playing EverQuest.
A few weeks ago, Irene experienced a couple of odd events while using this machine. On one occasion when I was watching, the screen suddenly became “corrupted”, with garbage characters appearing amongst the graphics. A screen refresh cleaned things up. Then there was the “crackle” the machine emitted one day just before rebooting. I decided this week that it was time to give that computer some TLC.
My thinking initially was that the machine was probably a dust clogged nightmare. I could see globs of dusty fur sticking out of the drive bay, so I imagined discovering a huge mat of fur and dust inside. When I cracked the case, however, it actually wasn’t too bad: yes, it definitely needed cleaning, but the dust/hair build up had mostly been stopped from entering the chassis by the air filter on the case. The innards were in need of a few blasts of compressed air, and the corners of the case benefited from some vacuuming.
The whole cleaning process took an hour or two. When I reassembled everything and turned the box on, I got…nothing. No POST dialog, no Windows start up, no beeps. The fans started, the machine *seemed* to power up, but it didn’t seem to actually get into the boot process at all. My initial assumption was that dust was causing a short, or that I had damaged a component while performing the cleanup. But that wasn’t it….
Paris to save the Drunken Elephants…
Electricity…
I am sitting here in the gathering dark as our short winter day comes to an end. We had a serious wind storm here during the night and into the morning, and around 9:30 am or so our power failed. It is a bit past 4:00 pm now.
MPAA to shut down universities and colleges…
I realize that the American legislative and judicial system is flawed. Money drives both systems: lobbyist groups can “encourage” legislators to re-write laws to suit them, and wealthy individuals or companies can sue the innocent and wronged into oblivion before their case is even heard in a court.
Continue reading MPAA to shut down universities and colleges…
Understanding your Nerd
I am a geek, or optionally a nerd if you prefer that term. I know there are some things I am good at: solving complex problems involving computers is probably my forte. There are some things I am pretty terrible at: socializing in general, small talk in a “party-like” environment in particular.