If your reading this blog post, you are seeing my new layout, on a new server, on a new blog platform. Over the weekend I started moving to a new server and during the process changed from Typo to WordPress. I hope you like the new layout, its a bit lighter than before, and the new server is a bit faster than the old one.
I’ve been working on a computer for a co-worker for a while now, it’s taken a little longer due to the holidays. Today I came to the decision that it would just be best for the computer and myself to reinstall Windows. This computer had spyware and viruses that I had never even heard of. So to start off the day I inserted the wonderful Windows CD to start the install process. After the CD had finished loading its wonderful self, I discovered that it was missing the drivers for the SATA controller. I know this wasn’t uncommon for a while when SATA came out, and still now with newer chips and all. But this SATA card is about 3 to 4 years old, and plus the Windows CD had service pack 2 slipstreamed into it, so its not like I was I using a first gen CD.
After finding out the wonderful fact that the CD didn’t have the needed drivers, I did what anyone would do. I headed over to the manufactures website to get a copy of the driver to place on a floppy so that I could load the driver during the install. But after making the floppy, I made the wonderful discover that the computer didn’t have a floppy drive. So after this I decided to make a new XP disk with service pack 3 slipstreamed into it. After making that wonderful CD and booting it up, I discover that service pack 3 did not contain the proper driver either. It was time for round three, I redid the CD but this time I added the driver to the disc rather than hopping that a service pack would have it. I know that service packs do not always carry drivers, but I based the decision on the fact that after service pack 1 all my XP discs carried the proper drivers and most of my computers have the same SATA controller.
After I made the third disk and completed the install out got to the desktop of good old windows, at this point the wonderful activation window met me. At this point I had to find the licenses sticker that the manufacture had placed in the oddest place. After fighting with the computer to get read the sticker, I entered it to only find out that the license key was not for this version of XP. This brings me to the question how many versions of XP are there, and I don’t mean Home and Pro. Vista only has one all keys will work with all disks, this is not true with XP. I truly hate XP more than I ever had now.
This is a rip from a local news station in my area showing a software package I created for the local law enforcement agencies.
I have to say that Sweeny Todd is the best movie I have seen in a long time. As far as I’m concerned you can’t put Johnny Depp in a movie directed by Tim Burton and not get a wonderful movie. Enjoy the trailer that is posted below to get a peak at this wonderful film, the trailer does not do the film justice. You must go pick this one up!!
Not long ago I made the purchase of two 19" LCD monitors for the my rig. With the addition of two new monitors to the family that meant that there would be one extra. After a while I deiced to use it as a third display to increase my desktop space and what not. But after installing the video card I purchased to run the third display I found out that X11 and Nvidia don’t play nice together with more than two displays, that is unless you have two video cards with the same series GPU (I have a 6600 and the new one was a 5200). So After about two weeks of trying to come up with a way to fix this so that all three displays would place nice together, I have given up. I found several little posts on the internet about patching X11 so that it will work with three monitors, that being two of them playing with nvidia and one X does. But I have come to the decision that I will just make a MythBox and use the third display as a new HD tv like setup.
At the time I also have a nice server setting in my room that only shares files, runs MySQL, subversion, and is my test bed for my work in rails. So why not toss a capture card and my 5200 into it and use it as a TV? the capture card really doesn’t have to be much simply because I have a TiVO so it only needs to have a way to get the signal. So I’m planing on this nice little upgrade to cost me anywhere from $20 to $200 depending on whether or not I decide to get a nice big old HDD to put in it as well.
Well if you are here I guess you have found my little place on the interweb. I plan to use this site to post stories that I find interesting, short rants, and anything else that I find interesting. This isn’t my first blog but it is at the same time. Over the years I have set a few up but only to let them go, I think my last one hasn’t had an update in almost 3 years. I hope to make a new post from time to time so, keep on coming back.
