November 07, 2009
It seems there are two major issues for Windows users:
First, the install locks up your iTunes files, designating them as read only. To fix this, go to C:\ProgramFiles and right-click on the iTunes folder. Select "properties", then uncheck "read-only" under Attributes, and apply.
The second issue is that iTunes 9 doesn't play well with previous iTunes Libraries. Go here for step by step instructions for rebuilding your iTunes library. Once you rebuild the library, you will have to resync your iPod or iPhone.
Some relevant discussions on the Apple.com forums if this doesn't help:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2151196&start=0&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2151196&start=0&tstart=0
and there are dozens more. Just search for "itunes" and "crash" etc. on the apple discussion boards.
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September 10, 2009
So my battery detached from my wonderful Sony VAIO laptop for 2 seconds and it died. DIED. And when I turned her back on, I got the dreaded BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). Except I couldn't see the son of a bitch. It flashed and reloaded.
I could tell from initial googling that the problem required a Windows XP boot disk. Problem 1: Where TF is the boot disk? The laptop didn't come with one, and although I'm sure I made one, I can't find it. And conveniently, MicroHELL only has a FLOPPY DISK download for XP recovery.
But I got one, courtesy of google. Here: http://www.download3000.co
Just save the .ZIP file and extract the .ISO file to a CD. VOILA! Boot CD! (make sure you have plenty of blank CDs, I had to make about 4 copies since my laptop wouldn't recognize a CD again once I had popped it out to try to restart)
Ok, so once the boot CD is in the drive, start 'er up. Press any key to boot from CD. I didn't have a BIOS problem booting from CD, but it's possible others might. After the Recovery CD is running, then I loaded the Recovery Console.
I never realized just how much DOS I've forgotten in 15 years. The recovery console is a modified DOS shell.
Anyway, I tried a bunch of things and realized I wasn't loaded into the shell correctly. Crap. Must freeze BSOD. So I looked it up. To freeze the BSOD so you can read it and copy down the error codes, I had to open up the startup options menu (held down F8 at the VAIO logo) and select "Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure".
That was the easiest thing I had to do. Now that I had BSOD stopped, I could read it.
UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_ DEVICE STOP: 0x000000ED (0x8A789030, 0xC0000006, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
And back to google, which took me to three useful places.
First, here: http://msgoodies.blogspot.
and MicroHell: http://support.microsoft.c
and finally: http://www.smartcomputing.
The last is written for non-geeks. Probably the most useful link.
Based on all of the sites I visited between 9:30 when it fried and 2:30 when it got fixed, I decided to try a solution that was a hybrid of all three suggestions.
First, I ran chkdsk /r on the root directory (c
. After that finished, I basically followed the steps in #3 above.However, this left me with 3 possible boot choices. Annoying and a mess waiting to happen. So I edited the new and improved boot.ini through Windows once everything else was working.
See here for instructions: http://vlaurie.com/compute
And finally, 5 hours later it seems to be working again, no losses. Tomorrow, ASAP, I will be doing a backup session to prevent the heart attack that was imminent for about 3 of those 5 hours.
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July 29, 2009
"At the University of North Carolina, there are many different types of people: frat boys and flamboyant gays, football players and math geniuses, evangelical Christians and newly converted Buddhists; but it is safe to assume that all of us agree about what's most important: hating Duke."In this student essay about the community that is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, sophomore Emily Banks spells it out. It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from or what you believe, as long as you hate dook. It's a feeling, an experience, a sense of community: the Carolina family.
And no, it's really not all about hating dook. That just comes with the territory. But I do have to say that having been a part of many university communities, the UNC family really is a family, with its own community and values and sense of belonging. Even as a yankee-Californian-grad-student-transplant, I have no qualms feeling an equal member of the Tar-Heel-born, Tar-Heel-bred set. And sure as hell, when I die, I'm planning on being a Tar Heel dead.
I can empathize with Emily. I came from a school with no sports and a bunch of nerds too (Caltech, you know?) and entered this bizarro world with green trees and flowers and HUMIDITY and gods on the basketball courts. I mean, have you ever seen the Dean Smith Center (click for the picture)? If you didn't know what you were looking at you would think it was one of those Megachurches. No kidding. It didn't take long for Carolina to embrace me with both arms. Probably the second best desicion of my life was to go to UNC. The place and the people changed me in ways I am only now beginning to understand. And like Emily, it's a place I love with my whole heart. Something I never thought I'd find anywhere but here.
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, Lali.July 03, 2009
I know, I know. But I think he'd be taking this better if he could get into the family business himself. So I thought I'd get him a little something to help......
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!
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June 30, 2009
It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.Yeah, and the cell phones were the size of bricks and had batteries like the one in your mom's car.
Can you believe this kid? Or his parents for that matter? You mean to tell me that his mom and dad have never showed him a cassette tape?
Later, he whines about having to listen to the tape all the way through because there "is no shuffle,"and breaking the cassette"
Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down "rewind" and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured.HONESTLY!I told my dad about my clever idea. His words of warning brought home the difference between the portable music players of today, which don't have moving parts, and the mechanical playback of old. In his words, "Walkmans eat tapes". So my clumsy clicking could have ended up ruining my favourite tape, leaving me music-less for the rest of the day
The ignorance of this kid is breathtaking. He's 13, meaning he was born in 1995 or 1996, depending on when his birthday is. My 1995 car came with a tape deck in the top model stereo. You could not GET a CD player in that car, and yet this kid acts as if the cassette is some kind of dinosaur.
And they gave HIM a platform? If all 13-year-olds are like this, I am frankly scared.
Get a life, kid, and pull your selfish head out of your own ass and pay attention to the whole world around you. Not just your easy little toys.
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June 23, 2009
I've seen a lot of crappy reviews. Whiny ones, too, complaining that the PDF support is minimal and that it's a pain to hold the bigger frame of the DX, and blah blah blah. None of that is true.
After a full day of use, I can report that the only things I dislike about the Kindle DX are kind of minor. First, there are no folders. Yes you can organize your files by date, type, and author, but there is no true file structure to help you keep things organized. This would really be helpful for those of us who carrying around a lot of PDF files. They get overwhelming fast. The other thing I am not a fan of is the robot voice of the text to speech feature. Either of them, for that matter. You get your choice of male or female. I'm not sure how it is with standard English texts, using only simple words, but you start throwing in complex sentence structure and foreign words, and the robot gets lost. All in all, though, it's still smarter than I thoguht it would be.
The Kindle has a number of uses. First and foremost, it's a LOT lighter to carry than some of the books I have already downloaded. Second, it's useful for a lot of tasks that would otherwise require a lot of paper: PDFs, Cookbooks (just take care to keep the Kindle clean and dry inthe kitchen!), and sheet music to name a few. You can also annotate any text file, so taking notes during rehearsal ought to be a SNAP with the Kindle DX. Text to Speech also makes a great alternative to books on tape (CD?) in the car.
The e-ink is another awesome thing. It's like a real page, so reading outside is totally possible, unlike working on most laptops. In fact, I spent much of yesterday evening sitting on the patio with the Kindle DX until it got too breezy to stay out. Long before the sun went down. Unfortunately.
My favorite feature, though, I think, is the free wireless internet access (thanks, Amazon!). It's Sprint 3G (where available) and not only can you download books from Amazon (many are free!), but you can also surf the web. I think the web browser on the Kindle, while clearly limited, is still MILES beyond the one on my Instinct. Not as good as my trusty ol' Firefox, though. Maybe on the next one. Several popular sites are pre-bookmarked, and you can add any number of your own, too. You can also download files. Kindle compatible files are automatically displayed on your home page by type, title, and author. There are a number of sites out there that offer free e-Books that display on the Kindle and are available for Text- to- Speech as well.
The only feature I haven't played with is the mp3 player. I'd rather listen to the books for the nonce. The speakers are better than I expected, though nothing fancy, so I assume sound quality isn't terrible.
It has been quite an experience so far, from the moment I laid eyes on the box. Even the packaging says "this is something special."
This is what arrived:
yeah, and the junk mail, too.
But it was soon apparent that this is no ordinary box:
the inside was pretty too:
And it's so awesome. Even the screensavers are cool:
There's a couple more pictures of the Kindle on Flickr!, including a very smart sticker and also some new jam and garden shots.
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June 03, 2009
There are many songs that speak to me, too. Songs for particular occasions, for soothing, for sleeping, for screaming along in the car in rotten LA rush hour.
I started my own list, every one of these songs has a meaning for me; a time, a place, a person, a feeling. I was going to follow Shannon's example, but then I realized most of the explanations are "you had to be there" kinds of things, so I thought I'd just write them out, and let you have the fun of guessing.
Or just listening. It's kind of the soundtrack of my life.
In no particular order, then:
1. Sarah McLachlan: Angel (and bonus: The GooGoo Dolls: Iris)
2. Barenaked Ladies: Lovers in a Dangerous Time
3. Chess: One Night in Bangkok
4. Bonnie Raitt: Something to Talk About (and bonus: The Alan Parsons Project: Eye in the Sky)
5. Ace of Base: The Sign (and bonus: Jann Arden: Insensitive)
6. Nina Gordon: Tonight and the Rest of My Life
7. Johnny Preston: Running Bear (Double Bonus!! The Beatles: Maxwell's Silver Hammer and The Rolling Stones: Mother's Little Helper, I could add about 8 more here, as well)
8. Jo Dee Messina: Heads Carolina, Tails California
9. The Wallflowers: The Difference
10. Train: Meet Virginia
11. Semisonic: All About Chemistry
12. Barenaked Ladies: It's All Been Done (this is a great cover)
13. Clint Black and Lisa Hartman Black: Something that We Do
14. Spin Doctors: Little Miss Can't Be Wrong
15. Shawn Colvin: Sunny Came Home
16. The Indigo Girls: Galileo
17. James Taylor: Carolina on My Mind Sorry for the poor quality, I chose this clip for sentimental reasons.
18. Paul Simon: Graceland
19. Chris LeDoux and Garth Brooks: What'cha Gonna do with a Cowboy?
20. Mazzy Star: Fade Into You
Some of my favorites, some not so favorites, and several I didn't include. I figured 20 was enough to keep you busy...
I apologize for the quality/ content of some of the videos, I was going for the music and some didn't have a lot of choices.
Extra Credit for anyone who can tell me why you'd never expect to see the songs from #7 double bonus on any of my song lists!
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May 16, 2009
There's really something terribly soothing about looking into the pink, frothy abyss of boiling mashed strawberries and making your kitchen smell like Jamba juice.
And it's reasonably easy on the hands.
Those of you who were around before the RA really took over remember how much I love to bake. Perfecting the subtle chemistry of a light cake or a creamy cheesecake has the same delights. Unfortunately, baking requires a lot more lifting, pouring, and manual dexterity-type of prep.
But no, I am NOT giving you my chocolate Bailey's cheesecake recipe or my no-fail Red Velvet Cupcakes. Someday I will bake again, and those puppies are all mine.
So while I can't bake like a fiend, my inner domestic goddess satifies herself with jam, 3 or 4 little jars at a time.
Today's experiment: Strawberry Kiwi.... So far so good. Pictures later!
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March 11, 2009
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February 27, 2009
We'll see where things go from here.
And seriously, I have the awesomest husband in the universe. I came home to delivery chinese food ordered and an expensive bottle of sparkling pink wine in the fridge.
Egg rolls and pink bubbles really make all the bullshit fade away. Going to spend this weekend chilling and enjoying my time away from stress-world. See you on the flip side. Or at least on Twitter and Facebook.
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February 14, 2009
Valentine's Day together #15: walk into Costco, notice motion-detector fixture on good sale, toss it into cart. Look at roses and strawberries on display across from motion detectors and go, "Oh yeah, Valentine's Day."
Somehow, #15 was a hell of a lot better.
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February 04, 2009
I'm on the track of one, a bigger more dangerous critter than I've ever hunted before: the Obama-Pelosi Porkosaurus.Click over and read the rest. Uncle Ted has some interesting ideas about stalking the beast and starving it to death.The Porkosaurus is plenty dangerous by itself. It subsidizes unemployment by increasing unemployment benefits. And, as the man said, when you subsidize something you get more of it. It doesn't spend anything -- not one thin dime -- on the one thing that economists say is guaranteed to stimulate the economy, defense spending. And its whole purpose is to feed Fedzilla and make it grow even bigger, swallowing our economy whole.
If you've never read Ted before, you're in for a treat.
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Colorado Springs police are looking for a man who hit two 7-Eleven convenience stores early Wednesday, armed with a Klingon sword.That weapon was a Bat'leth, a crescent-shaped Klingon blade.The first robbery was reported at 1:50 a.m., at 145 N Spruce St. The clerk told police a white man in his 20s, wearing a black jacket, blue jeans and wearing a black mask, entered the store with a weapon the clerk recognized from the Star Trek TV series.
Now that's some serious Bij!
I'm not sure which is worse, using the bat'leth to rob the 7-11 or knowing its name, as both clerks evidently did.
Or maybe that I knew how to spell it and the reporter clearly doesn't.
Scroll down and check out the comments on the news article. Pretty funny stuff, especially if you know some Klingon....
h/t Stacy (via twitter)
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January 30, 2009
What you may not know, is that (no surprise) despite the family's plea for privacy, the vultures have been hard at work and have discovered that she already has (gasp!) six children, these babies were conceived (gasp!) via IVF, and that she's (wait for it........) a single mother living with her bankrupt parents.
"Where are the ethics??" scream the journos and the academics. "How could you justify fertility treatment for a woman who already has a pack of kids? Don't you have a MORAL OBLIGATION to keep a poor (reputedly on Medicaid), single woman from populating the planet with her bastards that the rest of us are going to have to support?"
There oughta be a law! A law I tell ya! (read the comments here)
Well, there is a law. Just not here. I'm sure you've heard of China.
The selfsame "voices of the people" who decry this woman's choice to have a large family are the same folks who cry out bitterly about China's One Child policy.
Either fertility is regulated or it is not. How many children is too many? Is it a sliding scale based on your ability to pay for them? If so, I'd wager most of us would have disappeared up the abortionist's vacuum tube.
Somehow they also fail to mention that if it's my choice to have a child or not, that includes BOTH outcomes: having the baby or not having the baby. The faceless critics lamenting this woman's "irresponsible choice" (a phrase uttered by a so-called Bio-Ethics expert during a news report this morning) are also the same crew lobbying so hard to keep abortion legal.
I'm sorry, but I thought "Keep your laws off my body" was an absolute. Or does that just apply to the popular choices?
I haven't even touched the infertility aspect of this case. Many of my dear friends struggle with infertility, some have pursued multiple courses of treatment. Some, ultimately, decided that the pursuit was futile despite the deepest longings of their heart for a biological child. Having seen the struggle that so many endure, it seems to me that any successful procedure resulting in a healthy baby is a win. Perhaps those of you who have been down this road would like to chime in.
Certainly, it is a pertinent question, how will this mom support 14 children? But how does a 14 year old support one baby? How do two parents with two careers handle two or three small ones? Raising kids is not easy for anyone at anytime. 14 children, including (reportedly) 2 with special needs and 8 infants presents a huge challenge, but that doesn't mean necessarily that the children will be neglected or hungry. In fact, it's entirely possible that these 14 kids will be MUCH better off than some kids with only one or two siblings.
You can't have it both ways, either people get to choose the family they want, or they don't. And if they don't, who makes the rules? Based on what?
It works so well elsewhere, after all....
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January 29, 2009
Like this:
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January 27, 2009
But every once in a while it also gives me hope....
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January 19, 2009
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So He sent them a plague. The Black Plague.
ANTI-TERROR bosses last night hailed their latest ally in the war on terror... the BLACK DEATH.Bubonic Plague, also known as Black Plague, is spread by infected fleas. The plague is really a little rod-shaped bacteria (bacillus) known as yersinia pestis. The fleas live on rats and other small animals (such as squirrels) and are happy to feast on human blood, passing on the plague at the same time.At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages...
...The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside.
The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East.
It trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops.
Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells, or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
One security source said: "This is the deadliest weapon yet in the war against terror. Most of the terrorists do not have the basic medical supplies needed to treat the disease."
The disease is rapidly fatal if untreated, causing the patients lymph nodes to swell into painful boils, known as "buboes", hence the name "bubonic plague". In modern times, exposure often occurs from animal control personnel handling dead rodents or accidental exposure on a camping or wilderness trip, and is usually treated successfully. Clearly this is not the case in the remote mountains of Algeria.
Too bad germ warfare is illegal. Sprinkle a few microbes in a few caves, and we wouldn't have to worry about these asshats anymore, dammit.
h/t George Moneo at Babalu
And for some real (gallows) humor check out the comment thread for this topic at Ace of Spades...
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January 18, 2009
"Honestly," Nixon began, "there are a number of racists among the group. I am not one of them. Slavery was and racism is the great moral failing of America. I don't want to see you fail."Hop over to Naked Villainy and read the rest. Presidential heaven appears to be an awfully interesting place....Nixon appeared to take a deep breath and he turned away from Obama and looked out the window towards the Washington Monument. "I don't want to see you fail. I failed because of my own hubris. My failings were avoidable if I hadn't been blind to what I was doing. You and I became president at a unique time in America's history. Deeply unpopular wars were underway abroad. Deep discord infected everything at home. I had a chance for greatness. You have a chance for greatness. You and I share times more similar than you think. I can help you if you want my help. If you don't... Well, I can go back and leave you be."
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January 10, 2009
... And sprinkle a little fairy dust....
Tomorrow, January 11, two amazing people are going to follow through with a resolution they made in August and run a marathon in honor of people who have been touched by cancer.
WB and Bou are running the Walt Disney World marathon on Sunday as part of Team in Training, raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Together they've raised just shy of $5300 for cancer research.
I'll be thinking of you both and watching your split times from here, and wishing you fleet feet and much success!
Please take a minute to click over and wish each of them well! And maybe enough of us do it, then maybe just maybe, they can fly!
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