Showing posts with label Arrrrggghhhh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arrrrggghhhh. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Things that make you say OI!
Worst. Album. Covers. EVAH!
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Now playing: The Kimberly Trip - I Wanna Date Your Avatar
via FoxyTunes
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Now playing: The Kimberly Trip - I Wanna Date Your Avatar
via FoxyTunes
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Someone's been reading my mind . . .
Top Ten WoW Pet Peeves
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Now playing: Roy Zimmerman - Burn, Goody Stewart, Burn
via FoxyTunes
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Now playing: Roy Zimmerman - Burn, Goody Stewart, Burn
via FoxyTunes
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
That scraping sound you are hearing . . .
. . . are the deck chairs being rearranged on the SS Titanic
Monday, March 3, 2008
Macbook Issues . . . again
Fun times here.
Yesterday my MacBook's power adapter said it was not charging -- or no light at all, as though there was no juice going through it. Then, at the same time, WoW started fscking up. To wit, in one place on a single gryffon flight path, the game would hard-crash . . . and at no other place I tried in the gameworld.
Went into troubleshooter mode on the MacBook: eliminated the power socket and adapter. Unit ran fine on AC only. Battery was at 191 charge / discharge cycles (about 2/3 of the service life) but fullcharge capacity was too low. Issue did not replicate with a replacement battery. Apple replaces these batteries free out of warranty or not within 2 years. A trip to the Genius Bar got a new battery; in the store it charged in my 'book.
The first time I plugged it in at home -- same issue. Battery stuck at 5% charge, does not charge . . . but system runs on AC only. The Mac Genius took a look at the system and told me it would not be economical to repair it at this time (has other issues with optical drive and top case cracks). The adapter light he says is a main logic board issue (The original MB doesn't have a dc-dc / dc-in board? . . . . Hmmm)
The MG in the Arden Fair store kept the new battery in my 'book for maybe 20 seconds. The issue appeared on my system right after boot up. I wonder . . . when a new battery is inserted and recognized, the system checks to see of the battery's firmware is up to date and if not runs the battery firmware updater. I'm starting to suspect bad firmware flash jobs killed the batteries. The test battery the MG tried was inserted for less than 20 seconds (update occurs after boot . . . ).
I think that the battery firmware was flashed by the updater, and there was a problem either with the firmware.
As for WoW, I can replicate the issue on that flight path with multiple toons on one realm. I've already run disk util, repaired permissions and the filesystem (no issues), tossed all custom UI config data for the wow client, tossed all character config data stored on the client, tossed the caches, pulled the client preferences. I'm going to try another computer with WoW loaded and see of the issue replicates. If no issues, then I uninstall and reinstall WoW and TBC on the MacBook. If there are issues, then I call Blizzard tech support. In that case it isn't my MacBook; may be server side data issues.
Yesterday my MacBook's power adapter said it was not charging -- or no light at all, as though there was no juice going through it. Then, at the same time, WoW started fscking up. To wit, in one place on a single gryffon flight path, the game would hard-crash . . . and at no other place I tried in the gameworld.
Went into troubleshooter mode on the MacBook: eliminated the power socket and adapter. Unit ran fine on AC only. Battery was at 191 charge / discharge cycles (about 2/3 of the service life) but fullcharge capacity was too low. Issue did not replicate with a replacement battery. Apple replaces these batteries free out of warranty or not within 2 years. A trip to the Genius Bar got a new battery; in the store it charged in my 'book.
The first time I plugged it in at home -- same issue. Battery stuck at 5% charge, does not charge . . . but system runs on AC only. The Mac Genius took a look at the system and told me it would not be economical to repair it at this time (has other issues with optical drive and top case cracks). The adapter light he says is a main logic board issue (The original MB doesn't have a dc-dc / dc-in board? . . . . Hmmm)
The MG in the Arden Fair store kept the new battery in my 'book for maybe 20 seconds. The issue appeared on my system right after boot up. I wonder . . . when a new battery is inserted and recognized, the system checks to see of the battery's firmware is up to date and if not runs the battery firmware updater. I'm starting to suspect bad firmware flash jobs killed the batteries. The test battery the MG tried was inserted for less than 20 seconds (update occurs after boot . . . ).
I think that the battery firmware was flashed by the updater, and there was a problem either with the firmware.
As for WoW, I can replicate the issue on that flight path with multiple toons on one realm. I've already run disk util, repaired permissions and the filesystem (no issues), tossed all custom UI config data for the wow client, tossed all character config data stored on the client, tossed the caches, pulled the client preferences. I'm going to try another computer with WoW loaded and see of the issue replicates. If no issues, then I uninstall and reinstall WoW and TBC on the MacBook. If there are issues, then I call Blizzard tech support. In that case it isn't my MacBook; may be server side data issues.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
"Bumper Nuts" reach a new low
Nothing says "Support the Troops" like a Camouflage "Support the Troops" plastic scrotum to hang on your bumper!
edit: evil thought -- A Vietnam era phrase variously abscribed to LBJ, Nixon and SecDef Johnny McNamera was "If you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow . . . " In this 'support the troops with a magnetic sticker" era, why not just get them by the bumper? That way you get the scrote, heart and mind too!
edit: evil thought -- A Vietnam era phrase variously abscribed to LBJ, Nixon and SecDef Johnny McNamera was "If you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow . . . " In this 'support the troops with a magnetic sticker" era, why not just get them by the bumper? That way you get the scrote, heart and mind too!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
An double IV drip of "Irony"
Another factoid in the current debate on domestic spying:
The US Attorney General has a portrait of Grorge Orwell in his ofice.
He says he admires Orwell's style and clarity as a writer. Yea, and I used to read Playboy for the articles, too.
/bangs head on desk to dull the pain . . .
359 days until those people (to use a favorite phrase of Gen. Robert E. Lee) are outta there and our long long national nightmare ends.
His other office portrait, of Supreme Court Justice, US Attorney General and Nuremburg prosecutor Robert Jackson, is likewise ironic. But not in the way he might think it is.
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Listening to: Green Day - American Idiot
via FoxyTunes
The US Attorney General has a portrait of Grorge Orwell in his ofice.
He says he admires Orwell's style and clarity as a writer. Yea, and I used to read Playboy for the articles, too.
/bangs head on desk to dull the pain . . .
359 days until those people (to use a favorite phrase of Gen. Robert E. Lee) are outta there and our long long national nightmare ends.
His other office portrait, of Supreme Court Justice, US Attorney General and Nuremburg prosecutor Robert Jackson, is likewise ironic. But not in the way he might think it is.
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Listening to: Green Day - American Idiot
via FoxyTunes
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
"You work for the US Army? Merry Fscking Xmas!"
Just when you think the fscking bastard in the White House can sink no lower, he manage to do so . . .
This is the kind of thing the sole defense contractor I worked for half a lifetime ago did one year: a week before Christmas, they had guards armed with automatic pistols (these guys were normally unarmed . . . and they were contract guards, not the in-house security guys) and clipboards waiting one morning as employees as they walked in. If you checked in and were on the list you were sent to a "morning meeting" where the contents of your desk, your pink slip and even more guards were waiting. Not everyone was laid off; this method was supposed to stop the rumor mill from grinding on. What it did was point out what a bunch of dinks the management was there.
I don't know about you, but "retarded asshats" does not begin to describe this behavior.
On the other hand, when the last tech company I worked for sent my job to India, they did it *after* New Years' and they gave all of us the bad news. They even held a beer bash on the last day when they collected your badge. I hated being laid off, but the company went the extra mile in treating me like a human being.
Apparently, the gang in Washington will do ANYTHING to keep the mess in Iraq rolling. Just over a year till our long national nightmare ends . . .
This is the kind of thing the sole defense contractor I worked for half a lifetime ago did one year: a week before Christmas, they had guards armed with automatic pistols (these guys were normally unarmed . . . and they were contract guards, not the in-house security guys) and clipboards waiting one morning as employees as they walked in. If you checked in and were on the list you were sent to a "morning meeting" where the contents of your desk, your pink slip and even more guards were waiting. Not everyone was laid off; this method was supposed to stop the rumor mill from grinding on. What it did was point out what a bunch of dinks the management was there.
I don't know about you, but "retarded asshats" does not begin to describe this behavior.
On the other hand, when the last tech company I worked for sent my job to India, they did it *after* New Years' and they gave all of us the bad news. They even held a beer bash on the last day when they collected your badge. I hated being laid off, but the company went the extra mile in treating me like a human being.
Apparently, the gang in Washington will do ANYTHING to keep the mess in Iraq rolling. Just over a year till our long national nightmare ends . . .
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Brain on random...
1. Feeling like fsck thanks to a a bit of a cough and cold. Been resting; hope to feel better tomorrow.
2. New phone arrived yesterday -- Sony Ericson z310a. Pretty nice phone, really, if the damned thing would work. I managed to get it charged, registered on the AT&T network, turned on, entered some phone numbers manually (it does not sync with iSync 2.x in Mac OS X . . . needs Windows and proprietary software), and shut it down for the night, never to turn on again.
Now the "fun" begins . . . Called AT&T's "customer service" people. Selected "other" from a voice menu, and got billing. "Tech support?". Rep number 2 knew her onions. For once I decided to NOT say "I'm a tech, I know what I'm doing . . ." to someone doing tech support because I didn't want to come off sounding like an idiot if the issue was something I overlooked. After explaining my troubleshooting, the tech said "Yep, you've done everything" and transferred me to a long wait and someone with the typical accent heard from reps who live in a certain very large South Asian nation famed for total cluelessness in phone support. This rep told me I was in the wrong queue, and before I could start unloading my utter frustration onto her, was again transferred . . . to FSCKING SALES! By this time I was primed like a block of plastique and I went off, big time. I demanded to speak to a supervisor. She did what I'd do in her place and offer to help . . . which I declined after explaining why. I asked again. And, like I've done in her place, was warm transferred to another agent who, from her accent, resided in a large but sparsely populated North American nation. I calmly told my story of totally inferior service, that if I had not already put money on the books to activate the phone, I would have canceled already. At that point she said "pick a phone from the go-phone list you want." "OK, does it have to be the same phone and does it have to be the same price or less?" "No. I'm giving you a credit for a phone upgrade or accessories for your trouble." "OK, how about the Motorola RAZR v3?" The RAZR is the phone I really wanted two years ago. It has a camera, and Bluetooth. iSync 2.x and that phone do get along. In other words, my OS X Address Book and iCal will sync to the RAZR via either Bluetooth or USB without 3rd party crapware like The Pissing Stink, er, Missing Sync.
Now I'm getting a RAZR and not having to pay an upgrade price for it. This is my second Sony product that has been an extreme disappointment (the first was my Clie PDA). I'll avoid Sony anything in the future!
Not to mention that AT&T did a good job of addressing my dissatisfaction.
3. Finally, a Democratic presidential candidate who GETS IT!
And, "it" is the oath of office: " . . . support, defend and protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic . . .". As far as I'm concerned, the official acts of Shrub and Dead-eye Dick certainly qualify them as the latter foe.
The more I look at Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama, the better Senator Chris Dodd looks. While Obama and Hillary draw all the attention and the money, but from what I have seen, Dodd's the real deal. At a time when Congress seems to be engaged in a game of "Let's grab our ankles and grease up for Shrub!" Dodd is LEADING!
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Listening to: Pink Floyd - On the Turning Away
via FoxyTunes
2. New phone arrived yesterday -- Sony Ericson z310a. Pretty nice phone, really, if the damned thing would work. I managed to get it charged, registered on the AT&T network, turned on, entered some phone numbers manually (it does not sync with iSync 2.x in Mac OS X . . . needs Windows and proprietary software), and shut it down for the night, never to turn on again.
Now the "fun" begins . . . Called AT&T's "customer service" people. Selected "other" from a voice menu, and got billing. "Tech support?"
Now I'm getting a RAZR and not having to pay an upgrade price for it. This is my second Sony product that has been an extreme disappointment (the first was my Clie PDA). I'll avoid Sony anything in the future!
Not to mention that AT&T did a good job of addressing my dissatisfaction.
3. Finally, a Democratic presidential candidate who GETS IT!
And, "it" is the oath of office: " . . . support, defend and protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic . . .". As far as I'm concerned, the official acts of Shrub and Dead-eye Dick certainly qualify them as the latter foe.
The more I look at Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama, the better Senator Chris Dodd looks. While Obama and Hillary draw all the attention and the money, but from what I have seen, Dodd's the real deal. At a time when Congress seems to be engaged in a game of "Let's grab our ankles and grease up for Shrub!" Dodd is LEADING!
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Listening to: Pink Floyd - On the Turning Away
via FoxyTunes
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Abject Stoopid, part 1337
No wonder so many people are turned off by politics: the STUPID! IT BURNS!!!
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Listening to: Leslie Fish - Witnesses' Waltz
via FoxyTunes
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Listening to: Leslie Fish - Witnesses' Waltz
via FoxyTunes
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Incredible...
As I made my rounds of the blogosphere last night, I simply could not believe what I was reading.
Yesterday, the Democratic-controlled US Congress passed a bill that would greatly expand the President's power to spy on Americans -- wiretap them, intercept emails and so on -- in the name of "protecting" the Amurikan peeple from terrorism without the safeguard, such as they are, of the FISA court.
Shrub says he needs these extra-Constitutional authority to keep the American people safe from the threat of terrorism. Given that this has been a summer of incredible unease -- the "gut feelings" of Homeland Security director Chernoff, the unceasing catapulting of propaganda from the Giggling Murder Monkey himself with his barrage of speeches conflating the various species of "al-Quaida," the gathering economic storm that is the US subprime mortgage market -- I have to say that there is a sense sometimes of we are about to face something really really bad.
None of the above scare me half as much as what the Democrats in the US Congress did in enabling that admitted criminal in the White House to continue further shreading the Constitution. I seriously thought the election of a Democratic Congress was supposed to stop this kind of crap, to rein in that pathetic excuse for a leader and human being. Now with the Iraq War bill and this second capitulation, I am now FURIOUS with the Democratic leadership who LET THIS HAPPEN. And, once again, one of the Senators from this "Bluest" of Blue States, Sen. Feinstein, has voted in lockstep with these most evil of men. Kudos to Sen. Boxer and Rep. Matsui for doing what they were sent to Washington to do.
Flogging Molly has the words for how I feel right now.
Yesterday, the Democratic-controlled US Congress passed a bill that would greatly expand the President's power to spy on Americans -- wiretap them, intercept emails and so on -- in the name of "protecting" the Amurikan peeple from terrorism without the safeguard, such as they are, of the FISA court.
Shrub says he needs these extra-Constitutional authority to keep the American people safe from the threat of terrorism. Given that this has been a summer of incredible unease -- the "gut feelings" of Homeland Security director Chernoff, the unceasing catapulting of propaganda from the Giggling Murder Monkey himself with his barrage of speeches conflating the various species of "al-Quaida," the gathering economic storm that is the US subprime mortgage market -- I have to say that there is a sense sometimes of we are about to face something really really bad.
None of the above scare me half as much as what the Democrats in the US Congress did in enabling that admitted criminal in the White House to continue further shreading the Constitution. I seriously thought the election of a Democratic Congress was supposed to stop this kind of crap, to rein in that pathetic excuse for a leader and human being. Now with the Iraq War bill and this second capitulation, I am now FURIOUS with the Democratic leadership who LET THIS HAPPEN. And, once again, one of the Senators from this "Bluest" of Blue States, Sen. Feinstein, has voted in lockstep with these most evil of men. Kudos to Sen. Boxer and Rep. Matsui for doing what they were sent to Washington to do.
Flogging Molly has the words for how I feel right now.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Politics as Jihad, chapter 1337
Not even the fscking Special Olympics, of all things, are immune to politization or political calculation by the Evil That Is The Shrub Club. To wit (or, "lackwit");
From the New York Times
From the New York Times
And administration officials even discouraged him from attending the Special Olympics because, he said, of that charitable organization’s longtime ties to a “prominent family” that he refused to name.
“I was specifically told by a senior person, ‘Why would you want to help those people?’ ” Dr. Carmona said.
The Special Olympics is one of the nation’s premier charitable organizations to benefit disabled people, and the Kennedys have long been deeply involved in it.
When asked after the hearing if that “prominent family” was the Kennedys, Dr. Carmona responded, “You said it. I didn’t.”
Friday, June 8, 2007
Macbook Held Hostage...Day 11
I was actually hoping to get my system back today; that's not going to happen. When I last statused this at the store, I was advised "Under repair, being tested." Apparently it did not pass the tests again; Waiting more parts, from the look of it. At least it looks like the hard drive will not need to be replaced. I hope; I really REALLY do not want to repeat the install-o-rama for the TENTH time.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
RAM issues
What a day. When I embarked on the reinstall fest, I never thought the following would happen:
Reinstall all working software and OS updates -- OK
Reinstall World of Warcraft -- failed on disc 1
Clean all 5 discs failed on disc 3, different issue
Tried WoW four more times -- failed on different discs every time, never getting past 3rd disc
Booted to CD, ran disk utility -- extant allocation errors (same thing that I got last week)
Erase and install, update os x, run disk utility -- same issue
Removed windows partition with Boot Camp Assistant, reformat entire drive, run Disk Utility-- no issues
Erase and install -- Got to desktop
Installed 10.4.9 update and rebooted -- now cannot log in, password is rejected (nidb looks hosed)
Archive and Install NOT preserving, new user account -- now can log in
Disk Utility -- extant allocation errors, AGAIN
Apple Hardware Test: 4MEM/1/40000000: (error message)
Verdict: flaky RAM or mis-seated RAM, do not have a screwdriver small enough to reseat the memory
Set genius bar appointment for 1130 Monday at Arden Fair, sent system profile to Apple.
Replaced torn out hair with a bad toupee
I can understand how bad RAM can corrupt a hard drive; I see it all the time. At least I have enough functionality to run os x and do basic stuff, get on the internet, etc. Just cannot install or play WoW. At least in OS X . . . .
OK, here's what *I* do not understand: How does a system pass Apple service diagnostics yesterday in the store but fail Apple Hardware Test at home?
Reinstall all working software and OS updates -- OK
Reinstall World of Warcraft -- failed on disc 1
Clean all 5 discs failed on disc 3, different issue
Tried WoW four more times -- failed on different discs every time, never getting past 3rd disc
Booted to CD, ran disk utility -- extant allocation errors (same thing that I got last week)
Erase and install, update os x, run disk utility -- same issue
Removed windows partition with Boot Camp Assistant, reformat entire drive, run Disk Utility-- no issues
Erase and install -- Got to desktop
Installed 10.4.9 update and rebooted -- now cannot log in, password is rejected (nidb looks hosed)
Archive and Install NOT preserving, new user account -- now can log in
Disk Utility -- extant allocation errors, AGAIN
Apple Hardware Test: 4MEM/1/40000000: (error message)
Verdict: flaky RAM or mis-seated RAM, do not have a screwdriver small enough to reseat the memory
Set genius bar appointment for 1130 Monday at Arden Fair, sent system profile to Apple.
Replaced torn out hair with a bad toupee
I can understand how bad RAM can corrupt a hard drive; I see it all the time. At least I have enough functionality to run os x and do basic stuff, get on the internet, etc. Just cannot install or play WoW. At least in OS X . . . .
OK, here's what *I* do not understand: How does a system pass Apple service diagnostics yesterday in the store but fail Apple Hardware Test at home?
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Macbook down!
OK, kind of.
I've got some issues with my beloved MB.
Issue 1: the optical drive does not read discs. Any kind of disc. Spits em out. PRAM, SMC resets do not help.
Issue 2: During a session of World of Warcraft, my system kernel panicked. No big deal, usually. Not this time. Reboot failed to resolve it. Safe boot -- got to pre-login blue screen (basically windowuiserver . . .) Started to single user mode (no optical, no disk utility from CD . . .), and fsck -fy the drive. Got extents overflow and invalid directory count errors. Tried a verbose mode boot and lo and behold, I managed to get to the desktop. Booted into XP -- no issues.
Issue 3: top case is cracked.
Verdict on issue 2: Bad file system on the OS X partition
Time for a backup, because the next step is to wipe the os x partition, erase the partition and reinstall os x . . . but I cannot do that because my OS discs cannot be used in the busted optical drive. No external optical drive and no external HD to reinstall os and I cannot back up to optical.
Resolution: Chastise myself for not buying an external hd when I had the cash. Back up the music, game books and photos to my iPod and thumb drives. Set appointment at Apple Retail Store genius bar to use an external drive there to reinstall the OS and see about arranging for service on the optical drive and top case.
I've got some issues with my beloved MB.
Issue 1: the optical drive does not read discs. Any kind of disc. Spits em out. PRAM, SMC resets do not help.
Issue 2: During a session of World of Warcraft, my system kernel panicked. No big deal, usually. Not this time. Reboot failed to resolve it. Safe boot -- got to pre-login blue screen (basically windowuiserver . . .) Started to single user mode (no optical, no disk utility from CD . . .), and fsck -fy the drive. Got extents overflow and invalid directory count errors. Tried a verbose mode boot and lo and behold, I managed to get to the desktop. Booted into XP -- no issues.
Issue 3: top case is cracked.
Verdict on issue 2: Bad file system on the OS X partition
Time for a backup, because the next step is to wipe the os x partition, erase the partition and reinstall os x . . . but I cannot do that because my OS discs cannot be used in the busted optical drive. No external optical drive and no external HD to reinstall os and I cannot back up to optical.
Resolution: Chastise myself for not buying an external hd when I had the cash. Back up the music, game books and photos to my iPod and thumb drives. Set appointment at Apple Retail Store genius bar to use an external drive there to reinstall the OS and see about arranging for service on the optical drive and top case.
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