Category: Life

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Sometimes computers make me feel stupid

Aka “What I did on my Easter weekend”

To go along with a new home for my personal blog (the one you’re reading now) I decided to upgrade my home computer too.

I bought my current machine in 2003. It was a basic system built by a local shop. It had an Athlon XP 2200, 40 GB Hard drive, 256K ram, CD writer, and the motherboard had LAN, video, and sound built in. That machine was also when I upgraded to Win XP Home after about 5 years using Win 98 on a box I built myself back in 1998.

I got a basic system so I could tweak it myself and I added a DVD drive, a bigger AGP video card, a 100 MB second drive, and 120 MB external USB hard drive. I like messing around with video files – I now have a capture card.

Recently I had some extra cash after a bonus I got at work and thought about finally upgrading my Win 98 box to the 21st century so I looked for a motherboard and CPU combo similar to what I had in my XP box. While shopping online I realized computer technology had left me behind. The common CPU selling today is an Athlon 64 type, and the new video card form is PCI Express.

Then I had the thought, “Why blow cash on my Win 98 box?” So I decided to upgrade the CPU and Motherboard of my Win XP box.

I wanted a mobo and CPU combo package and I found a better selection and pricing online. My usual store is Tiger Direct and I got the combo, fan, and grease for about $240. The board doesn’t have PCI Express but since I’m not a major gamer my AGP card will work just as well.

Having not worked with changing a motherboard with XP I searched the web and read up on the subject. When I moved my 98 to a new motherboard I just had to remove all the devices and when it booted the first time with the new board I just had to install the correct drivers.

XP is more complicated. An article on The Elder Geek was a big help. I also used the help for creating a slipstreamed version of XP with SP2 since I started with SP1 and added SP2 as an update. That would save me a step by repairing the install with SP2 instead of going back to SP1 then getting the updates again.

I first backed up my current HD as an image on my external hard drive. Then I shut down and pulled out the old board. I put the new CPU in the new board, greased it up, and added the new fan. Then I put the new board in and hooked it all up.

I did the repair part of the Elder Geek instructions and everything seemed to ok. I did have trouble with the graphics driver. I should have uninstalled the ATI drivers before shutting down.

I also had trouble with the Windows Installer v3.1 used by some software to install itself. It seems something got messed up and XP refused to install Installer again. After hours of research I found a document that said to go into dllcache and rename the msi related dlls and reinstall through Update. Update will say it failed but it really didn’t. (Update complaining about it is the reason I tried to reinstall it in the first place.) Read details at this article Catch 22: Can’t Install Windows Installer

After doing that I then still had trouble with it because the service it uses – MSIServer – was not running and the reg key was missing. I could not find any articles to help with that so on a lark I just created an empty reg key manually then hoped that I would find out what values were in it. I reinstalled Windows Installer with a stand alone file downloaded from Microsoft and rebooted when it didn’t give me an error.

I went back to the reg key and it was full of values and the service was running. Next I downloaded all the updates to XP not included in my slipstream disc.

Another minor problem was trying to update Real Player. It seems to conflict with the beta of version 4 of the Google Toolbar for IE 6. Don’t know why and don’t care. Uninstalled the toolbar and Real Player updated fine. I also had to reenter my registration key for WinDVD 7 from Intervideo but except for that all my programs seem to be working.

You know how when people renovate a kitchen or bathroom and then redo other rooms because they don’t match? I got that after redoing my computer.

Modern desktops have what is called a soft power button. You press a button on the front and your computer starts up but it isn’t a switch like a light switch. When you press it, it shorts two pins on the motherboard and sends a signal to the power supply to give full power and that starts the system.

After the upgrade my switch didn’t seem to work. I had to turn off the main switch on the power supply then turn it on then hit the front button.

My new system inherited the 300 W power supply the old board used and I figured and by reading the motherboard book it needed it a new one with more watts to be safe.

On Thursday I went to my local computer store – Microcenter – and bought a 400 watt Antec Smart Power 2 power supply. It has two fans for cooling and came with two SATA connections and a PCI Express connection should I decide to upgrade the board again to a PCI Express capable board in the future.

I also bought 1 GB of DDR400 Ram – they had a special on 512 MB sticks. I also got a new Floppy drive – yes I’m still old school and feel better when I have a floppy drive to use should I need to boot my system after a major crash.

The new power supply is what my system needed and the case power button works again as it should. It also helped my speakers. I must have had a dying power supply.

I still plan on getting a new Video card. The one I got last year just has some display corruption issues that I have not been able to solve. I think I just got a passable board – it works but when the display corrupts it is no fun having to reboot.

I also need to get a new KVM switcher. I have two systems and I want to share monitor, keyboard, and mouse. The one I have is an automatic one but causes my XP box to start up with an keyboard error when I boot up. A reboot clears that up. I probably need to get one with its own power supply.

Also with the extra memory and new power supply it seems to be running hotter so I will probably get another case fan or one that sits in an empty drive bay.

In a few weeks my Win 98 box will be getting the old Athlon XP and board (once I’m sure my new board is ok). I keep 98 around because I have a few games I still play and I also use it as a sandbox for trying things out.

I will be wiping the hard drive and doing a clean install when I do upgrade it. I have been running it for more than 5 years and it is on the verge of a collapse. The registry has gone belly up a few times.

I also want to get rid of some programs I no longer use either because they are old or I upgraded when I moved to XP and there might be an issue with what is legal and what is not from the days when I couldn’t afford the programs I used. Since moving to XP I buy all my software or use open source free programs.

The only issue with a clean install is that Microsoft only still offers security updates. Hopefully I won’t have any major issues or it will be something I can find on the net somewhere.

In the future, should I upgrade to Vista then I will retire Windows 98 and install XP Home on it.

How did you spend your Easter weekend?

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Atheist sells self on Ebay

Hemant Mehta, chair of the board of the Secular Student Alliance, offered himself on Ebay. Well not himself, per se, but his beliefs. He had an auction offering to the highest bidder, Mehta’s time to visit a church of the winner’s choice. Mehta is an Atheist and he found out that there are many Christians looking to convert anyone who offers them a chance. The winning bid was $504 and led Mehta to visit several churches in the Chicago area. The money bid went to the SSA as a donation.

His efforts also received a good deal of media attention including making the front page of the venerable Wall Street Journal on March 9th.

His auction leaves me conflicted. While on one hand I liked the media attention he got, I was also bothered by the whole concept. It reminded me a “sucker’s bet” because Mehta never considered converting to Christianity and his auction played on the one major flaw of someone with sincere religious beliefs – that they can convert others even Atheists.

Committed believers will grasp on any bit, no matter how small, to “prove” that those who hold differing beliefs can 1. change on a dime and 2. A simple visit to a church or quoting Bible verses will do it.

Does everybody remember recently when respected Atheist, Anthony Flew, commented he did think some unknown force was behind our universe making things work. Christians had field day, reporting that an Atheist now believed in God. Of course a closer reading of what he did say had nothing to do with the God of Christians.

Then there is the constant myth that there are no Atheists in foxholes. No matter how many examples we provide that such a myth is false it still endures in the Christian community.

It isn’t the first and probably not the last time Christians would pay to try to convert people. When I was a teen and still a believer I use to get invited to my friends church on many occasions for a pizza party. The price I had to pay was to listen to my friend give his testimony to me. I had no intention of joining his church. It was an evangelical Baptist church where it was a good thing to rise during a service and speak in tongues. That goofy scene caused me to cross that church off my list.

I think some caution should be exercised about the point of the auction. Mehta himself has said he didn’t intend for the auction to become what it did. He said he didn’t think anyone would bid. His comments suggest that it was started as a joke and that is what most Atheists would think as well if you really think about it.

It may have shed a bit of light in our theistcentric media about Atheists but at the end of the day nothing would have changed and may have reinforced the believer’s idea that Atheists are just smug and arrogant.

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Playing hooky from work

I’m suppose to be at work at this time but I called in sick. I’m not sick.

I guess I am just bored with my job.

I did plan on going I really did, even after waking up late and knowing I would be late. But when it came time to trudge to work I just couldn’t do it. Whenever I call off for a non-sick reason I have huge pangs of guilt. I was indoctrinated to want to work and knowing if I don’t have a valid reason, it is a bad reason not to go into work.

Most companies I’ve worked for have attendance policies and they have them because if people had a choice, most would not want to be working. Even with the shot to the pocketbook, they can find other “fun” things to do with their time.

I don’t feel guilty because I called off, but I do because I like and respect my co-workers and I feel I’m letting them down if I skip a day or two.

My job isn’t difficult or stressful. It is challenging but because my company controls my time by minute detail, I’ve grown bored. Most would say, “Then quit.”

I would if I could find a job similar in duties and pay but I know that is not likely.

I can tell I’m bored at work because when I am on break or lunch, the time flies by quickly. When I am working the time seems to stand still. 8 hours seems like I am stuck in my own hell.

I’ve tried to read or write to take my mind off the ticking clock. I’ve even taken to covering up the clock on my computer so I don’t watch it, but none of it is helping.

I’m playing with fire and I can’t help myself at the moment. I know I’m going to need a real day off due to a family emergency, health issue when the Bird flu hits, or some other reason that is more real than “I don’t feel like working today.” And if I’m not careful I’ll have plenty of time not to work as I collect unemployment for violating the rules. And it will be nobody’s fault but mine.

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A Bit of Local News

Finally some local news:

Coach Hite resigns

The big news is that FHS Head Football coach Cliff Hite stepped down as coach on 12/1/2005. He became the winningest coach in school history, chalking up a 68-40 record in 10 seasons. Since 1998 his teams have six out seven league titles and appeared in the state playoffs in 1999, 2002, and this season.

His scheme was a version of the run and gun spread offense that allowed quarterbacks to put up some impressive yardage and touchdown stats. His most famous student is current Pittsburgh Steelers starting QB Ben Roethlisberger.

A replacement probably won’t be named until the spring when coaching changes are usually decided, but the local paper, The Courier, speculated that current offensive coordinator Mark Ritzler might be in line for the job.

Being a classmate of Ritz back in 1980’s at FHS, I hope he gets the job if he wants it.

Hite steps down as Trojans coach

David Cryer to play Broadway

Actor David Cryer, Findlay High ’54, who has been with the touring company of the musical “Phantom of the Opera” for the past 13 years, will be playing “Monsieur Firmin” in the Broadway production starting in January.

The touring company is performing in Cincinnati through January 1st.

Cryer is the father of actor Jon Cryer who stars on the show “Two and Half Men” on CBS.

Phantom’s foe: 10 questions with actor David Cryer

Originally posted on the blog “Hancock County Politics Unfiltered”

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Thank You Kevin Smith

Back when I was wee lad I saw a Disney movie staring kid actor Johnny Whitaker (of Family Affair fame). It was called “Mystery in Dracula’s Castle”. In the film Whitaker and his friend use a Super 8 movie camera to film a horror movie at an old light house. They stumble on some jewel thieves and the high jinks starts.

What I loved about the movie was it sparked an interest in making my own movies. I went to the library and checked out any book I could find about filmmaking. I wrote some scripts and even did some crude story boards. My problem was that I didn’t own a Super 8 camera. Our family couldn’t afford one and one I did scrounge from my grandma didn’t work AND I couldn’t afford the film.

A few years later I got the bug again but this time I had some money and a local camera store rented movie cameras. It was like pulling teeth getting my mom to rent the camera for me. My first film was a simple 3 minute and 21 second story of a cola test that goes awry and Superman has to save the day. Having no editing equipment I shot the film in sequence at the end of one of my Boy Scout meetings using my troop as the cast. It took like 2 weeks to get the film back from processing and when I saw it for the first time my heart skipped a beat. The focus was a bit dodgy especially in zoom ins but it wasn’t bad.

When I got to Ohio State I found out they had a film department (this was in the mid 80’s). I took the beginning film class and we watched great films and planned to make our own 5 minute film as the final. By now I owned a Super 8 that I bought through a discount catalog so making my project was not a big deal. The film was about a killer issue of TV Guide and the cast had my friend Dave as the hero and girl I liked Heather who played the damsel in distress. The twist was she saved the day by setting the magazine on fire. Hearing my classmates applaud after showing the finished film to them filled me with joy. I knew it was something I had to do – be a filmmaker.

Life led me in another direction and while I continued to write my short stories and enjoy watching films and the process of filmmaking, I didn’t think I would get the bug again. That was until I met director Kevin Smith – again.

Smith wrote and directed the film Clerks. (1994) about a day in the life of a convenience store clerk and his slacker buddies. It was funny and crude. He shot it for $23,000 and change with one 16 mm camera and on black and white film. He sold it at the Sundance Film Festival for about $200,000 to Miramax Studio and it was one of the films that started the independent film craze of the 1990’s (along with Slacker and El Mariachi).

On a lark I bought the 10 year Anniversary DVD of Clerks a few months ago and the parts I loved is the behind the scenes stuff especially the commentary audio. I learned that Kevin was a lot like me growing up wanting to make movies for the passion of making them. He decided in 1993 to do it and he did.

Smith describes himself as a media whore and that is why I like him. He interacts on a daily basis with his fan base and tries to include them on his filmmaking journeys.

This year he started a blog called simply “My Boring Ass Life” where he details, as much as legally possible, his daily life. He writes of going to the bathroom, playing house with his young daughter, having sex with the wife, and the various goings on in Hollywood.

This week he has started filming the sequel to Clerks. called right now “The Passion of the Clerks”. Don’t think it will be a spoof on Mel Gibson’s “Passion of The Christ” but the title is a nice dig on that film.

As Smith says, Passion is a return to the well. I think he is at a point in his career where he wants to revisit the time when he had the most fun making movies. He gave up writing and directing two big films to do the sequel and he brought in the two main actors to reprise their roles from 1994.

He also started a blog detailing the “Train Wreck: The Making of The Passion of the Clerks” where in video entries he gives his fans a sneak look at the making of the film as it is being filmed. I’m sure a lot of the material will show up on the DVD but it is thrilling for me to come along for the ride as if I am on the crew. One entry showed Kevin being fitted for his Silent Bob mullet and another had Dave Klein, the Director of Photography telling about the 4 day camera prep the crew was doing last week to get ready for filming this week. Dave was also the DP on the first Clerks.

Of course being Kevin Smith, he has included a couple of funny fake trailers and spoofs of Hollywood.

The video blog, I’m sure will influence another future filmmaker just as Smith caused me to finally write and finish my first screenplay “Kindred Revision” and enter it in a contest.

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