The FANLESS Homepage!! » Computers

another train wreck

FANLESS — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 01:52:06 +0000

I am watching local news coverage of the annual hydroplane races from Tri-Cities Washington, and, man, I had forgotten how bad it is there. Obviously they don’t have a very deep talent pool to pick from, but… gosh! Watching this news is a lot like listening to some talkshoe.com podcasts. They’re so unprofessional/badly produced that you almost feel embarrassed for the people involved.
Anyways, I sure am glad that I get to watch what I’m watching. I just wish it was put together a little better. You can watch along too, but I’m not exactly sure how much they’re going to be showing online. I think they will be showing a lot of racing/practicing/qualifying on Saturday, and of course a full day of racing on Sunday.
Also, I don’t watch the local Miami news too often, so it could be just as bad, but not that I’ve seen.

turn on brain, plz!

FANLESS — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 02:56:11 +0000

So… Maybe I’m a little jaded or something, but don’t you think a person would have gotten the hint that I’m not too interested in chatting with them by now?

I have no clue who this person is, but they’ve been on my Yahoo! messenger buddy list for a while. Here’s how tonight’s conversation is going…

fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:08:37 PM): hello bor
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:08:43 PM): hello man
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:09:39 PM): hi
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:11:48 PM): cool bro

fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:11:59 PM): u know, we havent really talked well

Hide Recent Messages (F3)

fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:14:50 PM): u there ??
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:14:57 PM): yes
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:16:07 PM): are u in the UK ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:16:42 PM): no, us.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:16:48 PM): k
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:16:54 PM): wat u do ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:17:57 PM): not much.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:18:55 PM): really
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:19:07 PM): dont tell me u sit around all day
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:22:48 PM):
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:22:57 PM): got a wife ?
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:28:25 PM): u there /?
BUZZ!!!
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:32:21 PM): no wife.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:32:29 PM): um
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:32:33 PM): g f
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:32:37 PM): no
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:32:54 PM): um
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:33:00 PM): so wats up wiht u ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:33:15 PM): very little.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:33:43 PM): lol
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:33:46 PM): i can see
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:33:56 PM): so why dont u care for a woman ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:34:26 PM): too much trouble.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:34:39 PM): really
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:34:52 PM): so bro tell me, are u a mafia ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:35:24 PM): i don’t think so.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:35:42 PM): u dont
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:35:56 PM): well wats ur drive
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:36:38 PM): i have none.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:36:49 PM): k
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:37:06 PM): well i am into mafia stuff
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:37:37 PM): life is great
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:37:41 PM): life is sweet
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:39:22 PM): so tell me exatly wat u do bro
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:39:32 PM): we could be close u know
BUZZ!!!
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:44:17 PM): i mostly just watch tv.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:44:43 PM): so how do u get ur money to stay alive ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:45:59 PM): i get money from the atm, just like everyone else.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:46:41 PM): and wats the ATM ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:46:55 PM): cash machine.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:47:41 PM): cash machine?
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:47:55 PM): i dont understand tht?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:51:42 PM): you can look it up on the internet.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:52:03 PM): u tell me
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:52:31 PM): i’d rather not.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:52:44 PM): why ?
FANLESS (7/6/2007 10:54:18 PM): well, what if I make a mistake in my explaination of what an ATM is, and then you’re on some trivia television show where you can win millions of dolars if you can answer a question about an ATM, and you get the answer wrong because I misinformed you? I would feel bad about that.
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:54:50 PM): na bro
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:54:55 PM): it cool
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:55:02 PM): i am in Nigeria
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:55:13 PM): cat do dat here
fegoson47 (7/6/2007 10:55:18 PM): so tell me
fegoson47 has signed out. (7/6/2007 10:57 PM)

are you guys having a killer time?

FANLESS — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 01:12:21 +0000

There are so many things in life that I just don’t get. Like why do men have nipples? Or, why can’t people figure out the difference between “then” and “than”? Why do I get so annoyed by bad grammar, when my own grammar isn’t so polished? But at the top of my list of things I just don’t get has got to be… Why are people reading this??
Seriously? Half a million+ people want to see what I put on these innernets each month? (ok, fine, only 52,002 distinct hosts served, but still… You came back 10+ times?) You do realize that I am fat and lazy and really don’t care about this stuff, right? I mean, I only type the stuff that oozes out of my brain. It takes entirely too much effort for me to scoop out the good stuff. It might be worth it if I were getting paid or something, but in the case of this here web site/blog/waste of space/whatever you want to call it, I actually end up paying for it to be here.
Anyways, I changed the layout a bit because, believe it or not, I actually care a little bit about your well being and I felt that the previous color scheme might be a little too hard on the eyes. I hope you like this one a little more. I have a feeling it might be too wide. You should just get a better computer/bigger monitor. If you don’t like it, please bitch about it in your own blog, and be sure to link here so I will find your banter in my referrers!

Also, if you want to advertise here for the rest of 2007, it will only cost you one 8 GB iPhone. I’m not too good to sell out!

PS (and this is a very important PS): Yvette will flash you her boobs if you go to http://miamirhapsody.blogspot.com/! IT’S TRUE!! I actually can’t stop clicking over to there!

This is how I do it.

FANLESS — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 17:07:35 +0000

Multimedia message, originally uploaded by FANLESS.

Watching MX!

So, this might be pretty nerdy, but I’m fine with that. I am right now watching AMA Motocross from the Red Bud National in Buchanan Michigan, LIVE ON THE INNERNETS zOMGZ!!!
In detail (which is the nerdy part), I have the video playing in Windows Media Player via Windows XP on my iMac, thanks to Parallels. Then on my iMac’s 2nd monitor, I have the same video playing in Quicktime, but delayed a bit so I have an ad-hoc instant replay. I just have to move my head to the right a bit to see what I just saw again. The twist to this is that I’m actually not listening to audio that accompanies the video… I am instead listening to the live audio feed because I have a very non-gay boner for Jason Weigandt, (that was meant as a joke!) and, frankly, I feel that his announcing makes the racing a lot more exciting.
Finally, on my laptop, I am chatting with my buds (just make up a username… leave the password box empty), watching the lap times (I miss being able to color label the riders like I could with the Supercross timing thing), and looking at the track map and just getting annoyed by mototalk people, and extra frustrated that I can’t interact with them because I let my membership lapse and I don’t have $30 ear tagged for a renewal.
If watching MX on the net isn’t your cup of tea, you can watch the 2nd Motocross class moto at 6 PM on Speed!
So, that’s what I’m up to on this rainy first day of July. Come to think of it, this is pretty much how I spent 2 Sundays ago, too. And actually, I guess that if I’m going to paint a picture, I should tell the whole story (WHAT? I have no idea what I just typed!)… My MX Sunday actually started late Saturday night when I was trying to be asleep by midnight so I could wake up by 6 AM so I could watch FIM World Motocross via MediaZone.com, but I ended up falling asleep somewhere around 3! I woke up at 5:50, on the couch, so I loaded the video stream from Sweeden on my iMac (in Windows) and tried to watch it from bed. A few laps into the 1st MX2 moto, I fell asleep. I woke up many laps later, and Josh Coppins was quite a ways back. I think this was the 2nd MX1 moto, but I really can’t remember. I kept waking up, watching a lap or 2, and then falling asleep again. I still don’t know who won the MX2 overall, but I plan on downloading and watching the motos again later tonight, or maybe tomorrow.

I CAN’T WAIT UNTIL I CAN WATCH EVERY AMA MOTOCROSS/SUPERCROSS RACE LIVE ON THE INTERNET!! Even if it’s only the 1st motos like now. It gives me enough of a mental image of whats going on that I can run the 2nd motos in my head. Especially with Jason’s excellent announcing.

P.S. In making this post I pretty much missed the first lites moto. Updating the blog was a bad choice.

fingers crossed

FANLESS — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:27:29 +0000

I just received preliminary good news from Apple. It’s not the official good news I have been waiting for; that should be coming later today, but good news none the less.
Soon. SOON, I say, I will once again be able to whole-heartily recommend all things Apple.
You know, it’s really hard to talk someone into dropping a couple Gs on something when the one you own is sitting in its box, dead, in the middle of your apartment.
I think I can now stop pulling my hair out with frustration.

things

FANLESS — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 01:18:14 +0000

I hope you like how my blog looks because I don’t. I miss my pink and green! As soon as I have some free time, am in the mood and HAVE MY iMac BACK!! I will get things back to looking how they should.
10 or so days ago I said I bought a 500 GB hard drive and I said I wished I could find a couple 120 GB drives. Well, some good and not so good things have happened since then.
First, there was an issue with my credit card I used to order the 500 GB drive. After a couple of days of talking with computergeeks.com I ended up giving them a different number over the phone. The woman I spoke with said she would just cancel my old order and create a new one with new cc number. I thought all was well until today, when the drive showed up. IT WAS A SATA DRIVE!! I needed an IDE drive. So I called them up and said “HAY U STUPIT FHUKS SENDED ME TEH WRONG DRIVE!!11111″ except it was a little more civil than that. The dude I talked to said I ordered a SATA drive and I didn’t really push the issue since he was going to give me an RMA and in house credit. But then I looked at the RMA and it said I needed to pay shipping to send the drive back, AND my credit didn’t cover shipping. So I’m thinking to myself… I paid $9 shipping to get the drive to me, and I’ll probably have to pay at least another $9 to send it back. PLUS another $9 to get the correct drive sent back to me? I DON’T THINK SO!!
So I called computer geeks back and explained the situation a little better and now I’m waiting for a new RMA that covers shipping the wrong drive back. And I got the seekrit kodez to get free shipping when I re-order the correct drive. That made me feel better. I was hoping for an amazon.com type experience where I say “You sent the wrong thing!” and they say “srsly srry d00d! We’ve just sent the correct drive to you. You can send the wrong drive back to us whenever you feel like it and we’ll take care of that shipping.” but I’m not going to bitch too loudly about the thing with computergeeks.com. In the end, I guess I’m happy. It just means a week or 2 more with this crappy drive in my PC that keeps making my computer reboot thanks to FAULTY_HARDWARE_CORRUPTED_PAGE. I so can’t wait until I don’t see that again.
Along the same good news – bad news – ok news lines of hard drives, I happened to be at Office Depot on Sunday, and I saw that they had 100 GB Maxtor drives for $29 after a $50 rebate. Now, I pretty much can’t ever deal with rebates, but small (relatively speaking) drives like that seem to be harder and harder to find, so I scooped one up. I was expecting the bits that I needed to mail in to be printed with my receipt, but all I got was a thing saying I can get $10 off my next purchase of $25 or more. I figured I could just find the rebate online once I got home. But when I got home I found out that the rebate had expired on the day before; on the 3rd. OH NOSE!!1 I hopped back on my bike and rode back to Office Depot. When I was there I took a look to make sure that I hadn’t made a mistake in reading the sign about the price. I had the right drive, but it too said that the rebate expired on the 3rd. I was a little bummed that I would have to keep looking for drives, but I was glad that I hadn’t opened up the drive that I bought. I decided to act a little facetious and asked a dude that was working there where I could find the rebate. He said it would be printed out with my receipt. I told him I just bought one of the drives and I didn’t get a rebate. He looked at the sign and made sure I had the right item and then did a little computer hacking and looked it up online. Then he said he would take care of it and just give it to me for the price with the rebate, but without the bother. So I bought a 2nd drive! The 2 drives at the reduced price were actually about $22 less than the single drive without the rebate. And to top it off, there were actually 120 GB drives in the boxes, instead of the 100 GB labeled. H00ray!!
On the down side, my iMac is STILL dead and I haven’t heard anything after several voice and emails. I should probably try calling Apple again right now. I am so over that computer!

consum0r

FANLESS — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 06:16:23 +0000

Recently, Brandon and I have put our bikes on a diet. Here is a list of parts I plan on purchasing this week. $900+ is a bit of a tough pill to swallow, but you have to pay to play, I guess. PLZ advise if there are some things on the list that you think are shady, and please suggest alternates. I’ve actually already ordered a different wheelset and the brake. They should be delivered later today. Also, I don’t necessarily want to order from Uncle Dan, so I’m open to suggestions there too. Especially if a 15%+ hook-up is included! Pay attention to how my Pork (somewhat updated pic) looks now because before too long I think the frame will be the only part on it left the same. I hope to get it down to around 25 lbs. I think it’s close to 35 now! I guess buying all of those parts means I won’t be going to the Seattle Supercross this year. I’ll still try to go if a butt-load of money falls into my lap.

In other spending money news, I purchased another 500 GB drive this weekend. Now I can take the 250 GB drive out of one of my firewire enclosures and put it in my PC. The new 500 GB drive will go into the then vacant enclosure. I’d still like to be able to find 2 or 3 120 GB drives for a reasonable price to use up my older Firewire enclosures. It kind of sucks that I can get drives with 2-3x as much storage space for the same amount of money, but they won’t work in these enclosures. I’d like to use 1 120 GB drive as a backup for my iTunes music, and another for my iPhoto backup. I don’t know what exactly I would use the 3rd one for, but I know I could fill it up really quick.

I will be super unhappy if Apple doesn’t call me back at some point today. We are nearing 2 months since my iMac died. I really miss it!

BEST TWITTERER

FANLESS — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 18:37:34 +0000

http://twitter.com/napoleondynamite
Best Twitterer evAr!
Things like this kind of make my day a little better.
(at least it made me smile)

P.S.: This made me smile too!

hotmail

FANLESS — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 05:07:07 +0000

I’ve been using Hotmail for over 10 years now!

internets

FANLESS — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 06:03:44 +0000

Hello internets,
My iMac is still dead but at this point I think it’s mostly my fault that nothing is changing with that. Whenever there are disruptions in the force and especially when I meet resistance in rectifying the disruption, I tend to just ignore the situation all together. That’s the situation right now. My iMac G5 is sitting in its box in my apartment in the exact same place it has been since I got it home from the Apple store last Wednesday. The thing is a headache I’m not ready to deal with. The Apple store people told me they would repair it for free (for the 4th time – 3rd time in something like the last 8 months) but if I want it replaced then I need to email someone at Apple and beg them to authorize a replacement. Sounds simple enough, but I’m just not ready to face their reply that will likely say “LOL P0WNT!!1″ or something to that effect. I’ve heard way too many empty promises over this computer to have any faith in this last resort person I’m supposed to email. Actually, I guess the true last resort would be the legendary sjobs@mac.com email address where according to legend, “Steve Jobs’ personal assistant” will get back to me and set my world straight. I’m not sure if I have enough pull to make that happen, but then all I’d have to do is write an amazing blog post about the saga with this ill iMac and get it dugg on digg.com. I just don’t know if I have all of that in my nature. I’d probably just bend over, take it, and just get the thing fixed for free once again and hope it doesn’t die again.
And that’s the thing that really bothers me the most. I’m really not after a new computer. My iMac G5 does everything I need it to do and keeps me smiling until it dies. All I really want is some faith in my machine. A piece of mind that will allow me to rely on it. I had this iMac G5 for just over 2 months when it died for the first time. That was really disappointing, but I thought all was well when it stayed running for over a year after the initial fix. But since this last rash of breakdowns I am really starting to question the reliability of Apple. If this were my first computer then I might be like “Ok, I guess computers don’t last very long.” I mean, this machine is over 2 years old. But this isn’t my first computer. In fact, I have an Apple Quadra 800 that is around 13 years old and still runs great! And I have my 7.5 year old 350 MHz PowerMac G3 that currently has a 3 week uptime. I’ve never had any problems with either of these computers and I don’t think luck has anything to do with it. Is it unreasonable for me to expect another 5 years of life out of my iMac G5? I don’t think so.
So that’s where things sit with my iMac G5. I need to email this person and hope/pray that they see things from my point of view and authorize the replacement of my computer.