Apple Mac OS X megapatch plugs 45(!) security holes
Update for Mac OS X includes a number of fixes for zero-day vulnerabilities released as part of two high-profile bug-hunting campaigns.
Update for Mac OS X includes a number of fixes for zero-day vulnerabilities released as part of two high-profile bug-hunting campaigns.
I thought I'd do something extrodinary and post here. I've not done it in eons (not that anyone cares).
I reeeealy want a notebook (laptop) computer. I don't need one at all. I just want one. To be specific, I want this one:
Or if I were to win the lottery, I'd get this one instead:
They're both great inside and out (the latter having a faster processor, different operating system and being much more expensive, however).
And both of them have very slick looking cases (the former being a high gloss black and the latter being brushed aluminum).
And speaking of good looks, hell would freeze over before my notebook would end up looking like this one:
Heck, I'd spare even ths shittiest notebook that indignity. Do people actually think this looks good?
I see this shit all the time. It boggles my mind.
Thankfully I've never had a hard drive crash on me. But I've fucked them up a few times all by myself. Not in the damaging them sense, but the the just being careless file deletion sense.
I generally learn from those lessons and get better about this stuff. But every so often, I forget again.
Thursday night was one of those times.
I've got an external hard drive that I use for a storage of a combination of things like Documents, Image Files, Videos, MP3s and Software. I have this drive so that I can easily get to my stuff regardless of whether I'm in Windows or Linux (I've still yet to fully get that scheme worked out on the hard drives in my computer)..
Anyway, I've repartitioned this drive a few times in the past with no trouble. Thursday night I decided I needed to do that again*.
I used a partitioning utility that permits you to do this without (supposedly) losing data**. And had I been a little slower to click "Yes" in a place or two, you'd not be reading this. In a matter of a few seconds I went from around 180GB of data to zilch.
Thankfully the most valuable stuff (pix I took with my Digicam and -most of- the songs I bought from the iTunes music store) were backed up elsewhere***.
The most recent $40-50.00 worth of Music is toast though. I don't own an iPod so I only listen to it on my computer. But at least I have most of it otherwise (I did a backup in iTunes to a DVD-R a few months back).
The other misc stuff I can live without. I'm sure there are some documents I'll be pissed about losing a month or two from now, but I can't recall what they might be at the moment.
But anyway this whole thing pissed me off and has added to my latest uber-depressed state. My Mom is being a particular pain lately and that's also contributing.
Anyway, after the hard drive mess, I tried fixing it but got nowhere. I figured I might have better luck trying it in Windows with Partition Magic. At this particular time I don't happen to have Partition Magic installed (I've been running the Windows Vista betas and I never bothered trying to see if Partition Magic would work with it or not).
So I figured I'd just plug the drive into my Mom's computer (which -otherwise unfortunately- is 8 feet from where my computer is)..
So
I unplugged the cables from the drive and got down on my hands and
knees and crawled under by desk to unplug the power cord. The problem
is, I had no fucking clue which of the 235 cords went to the drive and
pulling on a few I guessed at accomplished nothing.
What
I needed was daylight which makes it much easier to see under there.
Alas daylight came and went and I did nothing. I'm fat, OK? And
getting down on my hands and knees and crawling around on the floor is
not my idea of a party. So procrastinator that I am, I put it off.
I'll pay someone $20.00 to come do this for me (just find the cord, unplug it and hand it to me, I'll take care of the rest). ;-)
So once I get that done, I'll plug in into my Mom's computer and see if there is any possible way to recover the data. In addition to the stuff I bought from the iTunes Music store, I also had approximently 40-50GB of mp3s that I ripped from my CDs that I'll have to rip again, and the carefully crafted playlists are gone as well.
Oh well, it's not as if I'm dying to listen to anything. It's been a while anyway. But it would be nice to get all the data back. I suspect I won't thiough.
I tried to label the drive and that somehow wiped out all the data on it. I had the drive in two partitions and was going to add another**.
I've repartitioned hard drives without destroying/erasing data many times without incident. I guess I wasn't paying attention this time.
Oh well.....
Speaking
of lost data. I thought I'd lost years worth of bookmarks/favorites
for good a number of months ago when I erased them by accident. As
luck would have it, I'd copied them to my Mom's computer months ago
(I've got a user account on her computer). I was using it briefly the
other day and noticed they were there. I was a happy camper.
*.
I had two partitions one formatted in NTFS and the other in FAT32. I
wanted to shrink those so I could add a third partition which I'd
format in EXT3. I've had this setup in the past. But I thought I
didn't want EXT3 anymore. I changed my mind. ;-)
**. I used
QTParted which I've used in the past with succesas. However, Windows
still has Linux beat when it comes to capabilities in Partitioning
Software. I used to use Partition Magic in Windows. I now use Acronis
Disk Director. Both are better than any Linux offerings. I will say
though, for the price that the Linux stuff is pretty good (I've also
used the GParted front end as well).
***. I leave the pictures
on the Memory card. The first picture I ever took (December 2004) is
still on it. It's a 2GB memory card and I've taken less than 150
pictures. I'm good.
I used the backup facility in iTunes to back up my files to a DVD-R.
I'd been meaning to do this for months now and finally got to a point where everything was "suitably" clean to do so.
So yesterday I took a bunch of photos of my computer and peripherals and the (relatively) new desk (that I got for my birthday) that they are on and uploaded them to Flickr.
So please humor me and have a look. :-)
Below are previews of the pictures. Click on any of them for the larger ones. The larger ones also have details on what you're seeing (that is, if you care. ;-) ).
www.flickr.com
|
Oh and speaking of Flickr, if you happen to have an account with them please add me as a contact and I'll add you back. :-)
Thanks.
I just been so engrossed in stuff like Wikipedia (I'm an actual "Wikipedian" now), Linux forums and mailing lists, attempts at getting my blog (i.e. blog.angrykeyboarder.com - which still isn't ready to be seen, but it's up) finally set up and so on.
It's amazing how I keep myself so occupied on the Internets™ (considering I don't have anything else pressing to do with my time).
As a result of all this, I've neglected updating here.
But I just thought I'd announce I've not left and with luck I'll appear here more often (and actually read your posts as well - not that you actually care anyway).
So to those of you considering deleting me because I'm so silent, I just thought I'd let you know I'm still here.
Meanwhile, I just had a sudden burst of energy so I'll update further....
Since so much has happened over the last few months, I'll try to keep it brief, since I'm infamous for rambling.
So (in random order).:
I saw my all time favorite stage musical Les Misérables on Friday, 20 May. That was the 13th time (!) I've seen the show (in a total of 5 different cities) since 1991. Sadly it may be the last as the Original Broadway production closed in 2003 and the U.S. National Tour will officially end in July.
Oh well, many people (including my Mom, who was with me at the show on 20 May) think I'm nuts for having seen it so often. I like to point out that the real fanatics have seen it 20-40 times and go so far as to get into the "fan fiction" stuff, which I've never had the slightest interest in.
One final thought [or two. try to stay awake now, OK?] on Les Mis, I found it rather fitting that I saw this performance here, because it was where I saw it for the very first time way back in 1991 (as well as the 2nd (1992) and 3rd (1994) time). I later saw Broadway (twice - 1993 with Lea Salonga as Eponine, 1999) and in London (1992), Atlanta (1997, 1999, 2002 [twice] and 2003) and Augusta, GA (2003).
I
had a lovely "Mother's Day Dinner" with my Mom. We went to
Ruddfuckers Fuddruckers
(her choice). I got off cheaply. :-)
Before
dinner we went to a movie.
We saw United 93,
which was awesome. If you've not seen it, I highly recommend
it. Surprisingly, I only got teary-eyed a few times (I'm
famous for crying at the drop of a hat).
moving right
along...
I'm at about the same place I was a month or so ago as far as my computer. As I'd mentioned back then, I finally was able to get Linux and Windows running on it. Previously, that hadn't been possible (as I've mentioned a few times in the past).
But I still haven't gotten the hard drives configured the way I want. I can now use all of them, but they don't recognize one another (well they do, but only one other vs. three others). I manged to install FreeBSD (the DesktopBSD front-end) on a third hard drive. I'm not really fond of devoting an entire 250 GB hard drive to one operating system (each drive is 250GB) but for the time being it's OK I suppose. I've not even filled the equivlalt of one of them yet. And besides, I'm bored with the whole issue of getting them working properly (for the time being).
I've somehow lived on this planet for over 45 years without having ever heard of Biting Midges (a/k/a: Sandflies, No-See-Ums so forth.
About 3 weeks ago, we replaced the flap on the cat door. Unfortunately the cat door is 5 feet from where I sleep and 6 feet from where I spend most of my waking hours (the computer).
When we initially tried to replace the door we had great difficulty as the new flap was of slightly different design and it seemed that screws weren't quite matching up (it turns out we weren't doing it properly).
We both got tired of being on the floor (inside) and the ground (outside) so we gave up for a day or so.
Meanwhile the cat door was wide open. That was one of the stupidest decisions I've made in my life.
Oddly enough it appeared that we're had no incests entering the house. That gave me less incentive to get the door fixed ASAP.
To make a long story short, we got it working 2 days later.
About a day after that, dozens of the above mentioned insects appeared in my room. They pretty much stayed out of the rest of the house. Most of them are extremly tiny (so tiny that screen doors won't hold them back)
And being the hungry blood-sucking creatures that they are, they started biting me. Usually you don't feel the the bite (but you get an itch later).
Every so often, you do feel the bite. It's a tiny sting. Nothing excruciating, but getting one every 10 minutes gets annoying.
The biggest annoyance is just having them constantly circle you. They like to go for the head and are known to get caught in your hair.
They will also dive-bomb you in order to get a quick bite in. They often don't get what they want and just bounce off your head, arms, face, chest. neck, back and so on....
Unfortunately they are resistant to DEET, so that ruled out Insect Repellent (believe me, I tried).
I sprayed the hell out of my room with Flying Insect killer. All that accomplished was an oily coating on anything plastic and my leather desk chair.
The bugs left for about a day then came back. I suspect they just relocated to other parts of the house and hid out.
Speaking of other parts of the house, they've now decided to follow me to other areas of the house. This was only a "decision" they came to in the past few days. I'd been sleeping on the living room couch as sleeping in my room wasn't an option. And it worked for a few days. Then they discovered me and now basically follow me anywhere.
After dousing the room with Raid and getting nowhere. I called an exterminator. He told me to use an insect bomb in the room. He said, "I'd do the same thing for you, except that it would cost $175.00).
So went out and bought some a few days ago. I covered all my computer equipment, peripherals and anything big and plastic in the room with sheets and let er rip.
The instructions stated one is to air out the room for 30 minutes before re-entering. To do this you turn on fans/ac/heat and open doors and windows.
Unforutnaly the only door in this room is the cat door. So I just put my room fan in the doorway, opened the front door to the house (with screen door closed) and basically spent the night in my Mom's room. We locked the cat in with us as well.
The end result? They came back en masse within 5 hours. It is just as bad as beforehand. So I guess the next step is to call the exterminator back. Although, I don't know what he can do. I've read these critters are harder to control than roaaches.
The only good thing is that they supposedly appear in Mid-May (as they did) and disappear a month later. That means I've got just about 3 weeks to go...
This really sucks.
BTW. I felt about 10 bites during the course of composing what you're reading now.
Lovely eh?
If anyone has any suggestions (outside of moving to a new home) feel free to speak up.
That's about it for the time being.
I got an email from an online friend via BirthdayAlarm.com asking for the date of my birthday. I only saw it moments before I wrote this because she sent it to my hotmail address, which I almost never check. So it was missed by less than 15 minutes. :-)
Anyway, that' s not why I'm mentioning this.
Every time you log on to this site they encourage you to add more birthdays to your list, by copying and pasting a canned message they give you to use in an email.
But what cracks me up is the instruction that reads:
"Click here if you need instructions on how to copy and paste"
I'm sorry, but anyone that needs help with that needs to immediately cease and desist using the computer. After that, they need to go out and sign up for a computer class....
Anyway....
Now that I think about it, I guess I'll copy and paste that message here (tweaked a bit). That will save me from spamming people. It's been months since I've sent this to anyone and I've added a number of friends since then.
Click on the link below and please enter your birthday for me. I am creating a birthday list of all my online friends' birthdays
http://www.birthdayalarm.com/dob/12677029a757400508b363
Many thanks
Scott
My birthday present from my Mom arrived today. I asked for a computer desk. I already had one in the form of a computer cart but I almost immediately outgrew it after I got it 18 months ago. It was also smaller than the desk I'd had before it (that unfortunately was left in Atlanta).
So now I've got one that's bigger and nicer than I've ever had. Hopefully it will fill the bill. On thing I like is that unlike the first one I had this one looks more "homey". The first one I had was designed for commercial (office) use. The cart I got in-between that (and what I'm still using at this moment) and the desk I just got, was not all that well made. But, it was better than nothing. My biggest complaint has been that because it's a cart, you can't put your feet underneath it like you can with a desk. That tends to get uncomfortable after a few hours. I often sit somewhat sideways at it for more leg room. Sitting sideways, makes for uncomfortable typing.
Anyway, I had a hell of a time finding just the right desk. I found a lot of nice ones but they were always missing just one feature. Or they had something I didn't want. Most computer desks are designed for you to put the computer underneath. Being that a) I hate crawling around on the floor when I'm hooking things up and b) My computer has a very nice case that was designed to be seen and not hidden, I really wanted a desk where I could put it on top. The desk (more like a table really) that I left in Atlanta had a similar design to what I just got in that you could put the computer on the desk, which I did. So I was really missing that.
I figured I'd get stuck with something that was strictly commercial (or at least looked like it belonged in an office not unlike what left in Atlanta). After lots of looking at local stores and on the Internets™ , I finally found what seems to best meet my needs.
I'd thought about a desk with a matching file cabinet because I never seem to have a place for my "stuff" (software, recordable DVDs/CDs, computer books, etc) but I ended up not having to, because there was a matching hutch for this desk. I found them at Office Max. I'd been in that same store several times over the past few months and either didn't notice it, or they only recently got it.
 It has a combination keyboard/pencil drawer.The front of the drawer folds down. And it's one inch shy of 6 feet wide! :-) |
 Here it is with the hutch on top. I saw it like this at the store. I'd not really thought about a hutch but this looked nice and it and the esk were both on sale. |
Now all I have to do is get it set up. That's going to be quite a task because it's going to involve re-arranging the furniture in this room (bed, cabinet and hutch). The new desk and hutch are pretty bulky so it looks like we're gonna pay someone to do that put it together.. OfficeMax conveniently listed a number on their web site that one could call to make just such an arrangement. I'm guessing it will cost at least $100.00. It's unclear who's going to be paying for it, but I'll gladly do so.
In the meantime, I just made birthday dinner reservations at a place I'd not heard of till earlier today. I did a little browsing around web sites with Phoenix dining listings/ratings and this seemed pretty decent. Besides, my mom is pain in the ass when it comes to food. She's pretty boring. Italian is about the only thing "ethnic" that she'll eat. I do like Italian myself so that's not a problem, I just wish she liked Caribbean, Chinese, Japanese, Indian and so on.....
Anyway the place is called Franco's Italian Cafe. It good a good review from the local paper. It's only a few miles from where we live and (by strange coincidence) their pastry chef is non other than infamous former Arizona Governor Fife Symington.
They say his deserts are actually pretty damn good. lol
Speaking of my birthday, my wish list has still got plenty of items left. I won't be upset if they arrive after (or even well after) my birthday. ;-)
That's it for the moment.
Maybe I should have gotten this HP printer instead. It's such a bargain!
Oh and BTW...
Happy Nude New Year!
I thought I'd bore you with what I got for Christmas.
I'm liking my two new toys (even if I've not actually used them yet).
 |
| 2) HP DeskJet 6840 Color Printer |
 |
Santa brouight me the first one and I bought myself the second (I always buy myself something for Christmas).
The only paper around here right now is for Inkjets (my Mom's printer) and I've not been up for going out for days. So I finally ordered some from Staples online early Thursday morning. It's supposed to be here today.
While I was surfing Staples, I saw they had the other printer I'd finally decided (after 3 days of research) I wanted so it will arrive (with the paper for the other printer) Friday.
I guess I'm making up for lost time. I've been "printerless" since I left Atlanta. I've been either forgoing printing or using my Mom's printer if I really needed to print something.
Now I won't have to. :-D
And.....
I'll finally be able to print in color (my previous printer was a monochrome laser and the one waay before that a monochrome inkjet).
But the Multifunction machine will by far get the most use, not just for printing but for everythig else. I've never owned one before. I did own s standalone scanner years ago that died within a year of my getting it. I never bothered replacing it.
My ex had a multifunction inkjet which I used numerous times when I was faxing my resume all over hell and gone. So if/when I get to that point, I'll have my own fax machine to do it with as well.
I'm excited. Both of these are network ready so I'll add them to the network. So, my mom will have use of them as well should she want it. And someday when I grow up and get my own place, I'll be able to hook another computer of my own (hopefullly a notebook).
And last but not least, they both work very well with Linux! :-D
That's all that's really new here. Otherwise life just continues to suck ass as usual.
So what did you get for Christmas?
I don't know how anyone could have a life and be a computer/internet
junkie like I am. Since I don't have a life, it works out splendidly.
However, I do know this can't go on forever.
"del.icio.us
is down for emergency maintenance". So says the message I've been
getting for a good 12 hours prior to the time I wrote this message.
Either someone hacked them, or it's not an "emergency" but just major
maintenance due to the Yahoo! acquisition.
The
downtime is rather annoying. I'm constantly using that site. It's
coming close to completely replacing my bookmarks (4/5 of which I never
touch).
I let the warranty on my computer expire (this past week) without getting my RAID
mess resolved. I did get my video card replaced though. I still haven't
gotten around to sending back the old one. If I don't they will hld on
the the $398.00 "deposit" they took for good.
I've been
feeling rather depressed lately so I've not been functioning all that
well. My mom and I had a rather emotional talk the other night which
sent me into a deeper funk. So I've been rather lax in doing stuff. The
depression has also been fueled by my computer fiasco
I was so frustrated in dealing with ABS Computers that I just took the video card and computer to a local place (Fry's Electronics) and had them remove the old one and install the new one. It was worth the $45.00. I'm going to go a similar route and pay someone to "fix" my RAID problem as well (hopefully within the next month).
I'm contemplating adding another hard drive and if I buy one, I'll have it installed at the same time I get the RAID mess fixed.
In the meantime, I'm back to using my beloved Ubuntu Linux. I'm also playing with Kubuntu as well. I wiped everything and started over a week or so ago.
I'd tried another angle at getting Windows, Linux and RAID to play together but failed. I also stupidly had left my external hard drive hooked
up when I installed Windows and unwittingly erased all data on it. I
had backed up all my important files (including software that I'd
downloaded and actually paid for) and other stuff on this drive (both
Windows and Linux). It's now gone. I can recover the stuff I paid for,
but a lot of other personal files/documents/what-have-you from the past
year or so is gone. And to make matters worse, Windows, Linux and RAID
still won't play together.
It's pretty pathetic when you erase
your backup before you get to use it. One good thing that came out of
it is I finally got the external drive properly partitioned. I don't
know why, but I've always had a hard time "getting" partitioning. I
think I've finally figured it out though.
I made a mistake
earlier this year making three primary partitions on this external
drive, when I only needed one plus an extended partition with two
logical partitions in it. I re-partitioned it the right way this time.
I have the same types/sizes, just done right (NTFS, FAT32, EXT3).
On another geeky note, I have my eye on this
Multifunction Monochrome Laser Printer/Fax/Scanner/Copier. I just asked
for it for Christmas. If I don't get it, I'll just buy it myself. 
I could use a new printer. What I have right now
is over 6 years old and seriously jammed over 2 years ago. I have no
idea what shape it's in (obviously I don't print much). I've never had
a fax machine. I did have a scanner years ago that died within a year
of buying it. I never replaced it as I rarely scan. I figured a
Multifunction device made the most sense as it does everything I need
(for the most part) and I need to do any of it's given options rather
infrequently. My mom has one (color inkjet) that I've used a few times
over the past 18 months. I could hold off and wait till I finally move
out but I figure I'll need every dime I can scrape up them for moving
expenses (especially since I have virtually nothing to my name).
I
might someday invest in an inexpensive inkjet photo printer someday for
color printing and photo printing (which I'd need even less).
Anywho,
that's it for the moment. Thanks for reading. If you don't hear from me
in the near future, then I'll wish you a Happy Holiday season.
I just sent this Email to ABS Computers. Afterward, I felt compelled to share it with you.
(at least as I once knew it)..
The overwhelming majority of you who are reading this now probably have no clue as to what I'm writing about here. That in and of itself is probably the biggest reason why Usenet (a/k/a: "Usenet Newsgroups", NetNews" or simply "Newsgroups") is dying.
When I first discovered the Internet (in 1994), the World Wide Web was just starting to take off. So text-based services like Gopher and WAIS were quite popular.
And then, there was Usenet.
Some of you who don't know Usenet may be actually familiar with it via Google Groups. Although Google (much to my disdain) does one hell of a job of masking the fact that Usenet even exists (in part because they chose to mix Usenet feeds with Mailing List feeds).
Many of us "Old Timers" long for the early days of Google Groups. It was a much more unuseable service then. They had just acquired DejaNews and thus, Google Groups was born.
A number of "Old-timers" on Usenet are also unhappy with Google because it does such a good job at hiding the fact that people are posting to newsgroups. The end result being that "newbies" have no clue as to Usenet customs and etiquette, thus disrupting a lot of the groups they post to.
This has only been made worse by the fact that two of the largest providers of Usenet (MSN and later AOL) discontinued regular access.
AOL discontinued access early this year. I just learned this today (I need to get out more) and that's what inspired what you are now reading.
When AOL first offered Usenet access the result was much like what has happened with Google Groups. A lot of clueless people irritating the masses of old-timers.
This is not to say that all users of AOL (and certainly not Google) are clueless. However, they are both widely popular services. The sheer numbers of users combined with ease of access was bound to bring masses of clueless people with them.
One of the nice things about Google Groups is the fact that it archives most all newsgroup posts going back for over a decade (well before Google even existed). I found my very first newsgroup post there (from 1994), archived for eternity. ;-)
I'd love to share that post with you, but unfortunatly back then, I was somewhat clueless myself and used my real name online. Several years and a number of flame wars and online psycho encounters later, I abandoned that practice.
As a side note, part of my inspiration for my "angrykeyboarder" moniker was due to the fact that I've gotten so good at pissing people off over the years.
But I digress.......
Usenet (for me) is still a great way to communicate. And unlike web-based forums and bulletin boards, you can keep much better track of posts, thread them easily and even save them to your hard drive. It's not as "sexy" as the web, but for what amounts to text-based discussion, it's far more efficient. And unlike mailing lists, it's very simple to "subscribe" and "unsubscribe". And when it comes to high-volume, high volume mailing lists can overwhelm your mail server or just your mailbox and therefore be more difficult to manage.
Since newsgroups are accessed via a different server than your email, that problem doesn't exist.
I have to admit though, in recent years my use of newsgroups has plummeted due to the popularity of web based discussion as well as blogging/journaling. There are only so many hours in a day (even for people like me, with no life and nothing else to do but be online all day).
In any event, I still think newsgroups have their place and I hope that the remaining big ISPs that carry them, keep carrying them. Thankfully, my provider (Cox.net) still does.
If you've made it this far and want to know more about Usenet. My beloved Wikipedia has a good article on it and good links for more information.
To read it right, don't use Google. Use regular newsreader software. There are some excellent ones out there. They come in all shapes and sizes. The most popular (but not quite as good) ones are integrated with email programs. You may have one of these now and not realize it offers Usenet access. Among them are Mozilla Thunderbird, The Mozilla Suite and *cough*Microsoft Outlook Express*cough.
Check it out.
And thanks for humoring me by making it to this sentence.
I've owned 3 computers. The first one I bought in 1995, the second in 1999 (both were from Dell). I never had anything go wrong. I've always heard that "eventually you'll have a hard drive failure".
Well so far, so good on that one (at least).
In any event, I bought my third and current computer almost a year ago. I guess I'm somewhat lucky in that the warranty expires on the 10th of next month.
Why? It seems the video card has died. They are shipping me a replacement. Once it gets here, I'm to call them back to arrange for someone to come out and swap it (they pay for that as well, it's in the warranty).
In the meantime (trusting souls that they are) they are charging me $398.00 and will refund the money once they get the bad card back. I'm glad I've got the money right now. I don't have credit cards (I gave them my Visa Check Card number).
In my last post I bitched about this company (ABS Computers). I've had a number of issues with them and it seems like they are pouring salt on the wound with this nonsense about temporarily charging me for the replacement video cards.
In a previous post I'd mentioned problems I'd been having with a monitor I bought for my mom. We had to get two replacements before we got one that worked out. However, at least the maker (HP) was more trusting. They shipped two monitors to us withn a 10 day period and enver batted an eye. They never asked for any "temporary" charges from us.
ABS does make good computers and I can't fault them for the bad video card. However, their customr service stinks (even if it is in the US) and my biggest issues with them have yet to be resolved. They gave me RAID when I didn't ask for it.
That will be addressed (again) once I get this video card stuff straightened out.
This is all down to the wire, as the warranty is to expire shortly.
I'm glad the card decided to die when it did. Had it been next month it would have proven rather expensive. It's probably the single most espensive piece of hardware inside the box.
On a related note, for the first time ever, I ventured inside a PC case. I had to reseat the video card in order to test it and that's how we (me and the tech support person on the phone) determined it was bad.
That was fun. I've read how supposedly easy it is to install/remove video cards. I had a hell of a time with it. I'd gladly pay someone to replace it if/when that time comes (I'm not referring to the replacemnt I'm getting now - that's taken care of).
In the meantime I'm back to where I was 18 months ago. I'm using my mom's computer. At least (thanks to me) it's nicer than the one she had back then.
But worst of all, I'm missing my beloved Linux. My mom won't allow me to install it on her computer. She's paranoid.
ABS Computers.
I had my final visit with my Physical Therapist (for my finger injury) this past Thursday.
I
ran out of Effexor and went into nasty-ass Withdrawal. I'd forgotten
the Rx was refillable. LOL. When I finally figured that out (after two
days). I called in a refill and my Mom picked it up for me (the world
was spinning too much for me to drive).
14 hours later I was "back to normal" (whatever that means).
The chair I spend most of my time in (and paid too much for last December) literally broke. Two of the legs broke off. The thing started mysteriously tilting about a week ago and as the days went by the tilt progressed even more. I couldn't figure out where it was tilting. It hadn't occorred to me to check the legs.
Finally it just started tilting very quickly last night and the next thing I knew, my fat ass was on the floor.
Speaking of fat, I guess I was too fat for it. LOL
Actually it was a pretty flimsy chair. I didn't realize that until I borrowed my mom's chair while I await the arrival of a replacement.
When I bought this chair I had only been looking at the "task/secretarial" style as my Mom had talked me out of getting what I really wanted.
What I wanted was more like an "executive" style. Basically like the one I'd had for years that I abandoned in Atlanta.
Well now I'm getting what I want. In fact it's even nicer than the chair I left in Atlanta. If you're interested, click here to see it. It's supposed to be delivered sometime on Tuesday.
I'm still enjoying having Linux on my hard drive (finally!) although it would be nice to have both of my hard drives usable. Right now I've got a boot partition on my first hard drive and everything else on my 2nd. This is a waste of about 98% of my space on the first drive and there's nothing I can do about it. I still can't install Windows at all (unless I go back to my old configuration which then won't let me install Linux....
I figured I'm due for one or two more calls to my PC maker's tech support, but I hate calling and I figured I'd just enjoy the fun of having Linux installed (since that was the biggest part of my goal) for a while before tacking the rest. I still expect that they may have to send somebody out to do some work inside the box. I'm sure as hell not doing it. LOL
OH speaking of Linux, I've got a few sreenshots of my recent desktop (and some past ones) up on deviantArt. My current one (in two incarnations) is here and here, if you're interested.
I've not seen my therapist in weeks. I don't know if/when I'll go back to her. We kind of hit a brick wall. Her goal is to get me out and about and I've never been one to do that (even when I'm "well"). Going to/from work doesn't count.
I do think I'll give school a try though, because it's the only way I'll ever stand a chance of getting a job in the IT field when the time comes to look for a job.
I've had it with the travel industry and call centers. If I went back to that, you might hear about me on the evening news at some point...
I've
been rather depressed on and off lately. The future seems bleak. I have
no interest in much of anything outside of being at my computer. It's a
great escape I suppose. I won't tell you when I last showered. 
Y'know it's funny, in the past when I've gotten this bad, I've fallen hard for someone I met online and it's helped me cope (a few times I'd meet the person, more often I wouldn't and it would just end for one reason or other).
I'd "met" someone online about 2 years ago (not long after my ex told me it was over).
I'd really hit it off with this new found friend online. We talked on the phone several times over a period of many months.
Then my situation changed because I was forced to move to Phoenix and living with my Mom made 95% of my private life pubic so it pretty much killed my romance.
But besides that, I when I got here, I felt beaten and defeated. "They won". I fought for months to avoid leaving Atlanta, but when I was about to be homeless I had no choice.
But the whole experience left me a beaten man and I just didn't care about anything anymore, including romance.
So the relationship quickly withered and died. It's just as well, I'm such a mess right now that I need to get my head on straight. I told my therapist I need to learn to relate to people in general before I attempt another romance. She agreed.
And for months now, I've just been apathetic. Heck, I've not even been the horny bastard I typically am. I don't know if it's the medication, the depression or both. Of course living with my mom kindo cramps my style, but I don't know if I'd feel much different if I were alone.
In any event, I'm just kinda coasting along here. Perhaps if/when I start school the daily routine will help me get back on track. I hope so, because nothing else I can think of off hand could.
I don't really know how schedules work, but I'd like to go to one of the community colleges here. I suppose I'd be looking at Winter (or maybe Spring?).
The Mental Health Clinic I go go can help me out with this stuff and they may also pay for all or a portion of it. I'm not fully clear on it, but they do pay for "voc rehab" so we'll see.
I've not really checked into any of this yet. I figure I'd do so by the end of the year.
Well I've babbled long enough now.
OK kids.
I'm outta here (for the moment).
It seems like I've almost come to a dead-end as far as therapy goes. As a result, I've stopped going for the time being. I don't plan to stop permanently. Just for maybe a month or two. Things are pretty much all up to me now. I was feeling pretty good for about 6 weeks). I'm sure my switch from Prozac to Effexor XR had something to do with that.
Lately though I've been rather down. I'm not really sure why.
But I don't know what to do... I've been talking about school for the past year but I can't motivate myself to do anything about it.
One good thing I can report with regard to myself. I finally got my Computer Hard drive situation squared straightened out (I think...). I don't know why it took me 9 months to make a simple phone call, but I finally (!) did. It took all of 2 minutes. The tech told me where I had to go in setup in order to disable RAID. I'd have sowrn I'd checked everwhere. But somehow I missed that one menu.....
In any event, I'll finally truly have two separate usable hard drives, one of which I will devote to anything but Windows (e.g. Linux).
Now all I have to do is sort through 9 months of stuff in my "Stuff" folder. There is no use in backing up umpteen gigabytes of stuff that I no longer have use for.
Naturally, I've been putting that off. Well, I did start on it about 48 hours ago, but I've been going in spurts. I figure I'm halfway done. Disabling RAID will wipe my hard drives so I have no choice.
Speaking of computers, my mom's 75th birthday was on September 2nd and I wanted to get her something special. Seeing how I have very few expenses, I decided to take $1000.00 or so and buy her a new computer and monitor. Her previous computer is over six years old. She'd also been green with envy ever since she saw the LCD I bought with my new computer last December.
So, I got her a new LCD and a computer. They are pretty cool. I'm actually jealous of one thing her computer has that mine doesn't A DVD±R/RW drive with Lightscribe. :-)
She's mostly been pining for a LCD for the past year. My plan was for it to arrive a day or two before the computer (both being surprises) but J&R had other ideas. I ordered the LCD from them and the computer from Buy.com. I actually ordered the monitor first (a day before the computer) and asked for the cheapest shipping option for both.
Alas the computer arrived almost a week before the monitor did. And just because bad luck likes to chase me around. We had to return the monitor because it was defective. The replacement they sent was also defective. So, they sent a third one out. So far so good. The first one would not wake up after being in suspend mode and the second one had a bent jack on it, so we could not attach the cable.
It all happened so fast that I dropped both bad monitors off at UPS at the same time to be shipped back to HP.
In spite of it all she's very happy with her new computer and monitor. :-)
Naturally though she's had to find something to complain about though, so she's bitched about the boxes and not knowing where she's going to store them. And she's bitched about her old computer taking up space.
I've felt compelled to tell her "Why don't you just give me your new stuff back and keep the old and that way you won't have to worry about this?"
Moving right along...
I kinda thought I'd be starting school around this time, but it looks liike I'll have to wait till Winter. I just coudn't find the energy to deal with it and honestly I'm scared of it. I know it's something I have to do though. I've got to find a way to move forward and get on with my life.
I guess one reason why I relate to people so much younger is, I feel that way myself. At least when it comes to what I want to do when I grow up. I have no fucking clue. I have some idea, but I don't know how it will pan out.
I do feel like an alien
though. I'm not sure I can relate to anyone, regardless of age. Trust
me, I come across quite differently in person. To begin with, I'm
painfully shy at first. I'm also not comfortable in group settings.
Especially not large groups. So, I don't know how that will affect
school, but we'll see I guess.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 |
Recent Comments