So here I am. At work. In the bathroom. Bored enough to text Blogger. Might as well write something interesting, but I'm at work, a long day ahead of me.

Fixed

Well, I got my friends comp fixed. Picked up a 120GB SATA used at a local computer shop, and put Vista back onto it.

Anyway, I'm really bored.

You probably don't care.

Thanks if you do read this though.

Long time, no read?

Anyway, of course I haven't posted anything in ages, and no one really cares anyway.
But, just because I'm not being read doesn't mean I don't have to post, does it?

Either way, here's something new.

My friend's, computer crashed. Laptop, to be more precise, running the accursed Vista OS. Anyway, I decided to check it out, being the nice niche computer expert around the neighborhood, at least the only one he knows. So, I first tried their built in auto-fixer-upper feature, that I don't really care to remember the name of, and of course it didn't.
Next, I tried doing the dreadful system restore, of which I disable on every windows system I own. This too, ended in less than positive results.

Since nothing could convince this computer to get even to the log in screen, I decided I'd just wipe it.

Vista install disk: Check
Format Hard Drive: Check
Install Prep: Check
Actual Install....: Fail

Well, this was starting to annoy me. So, I pulled out a simple XP SP2 disk I had lying around, and came out with the same results.
This was really starting to annoy me.
So, with almost everything else exhausted, I tried as well and XP Black Edition disk, and it failed. No surprise there. I even had an old Ubuntu Live CD sitting around, but no luck there either. And even after a few other Distros of Linux, everthing refused to work.

Of course, a real computer expert would have stopped long before I did, but what the heck, I like cheap and long A$$ solutions to simple problems.
After all of those installs, I tried to just simple test the hard drive. What did I find? Physical errors. Lots. This hard drive was skipping worse than a broken record.

So now, my friend only really has to pay like 40 bucks for a new hard drive, after only like a month of me trying to fix it without looking at the real problem.



And that's my story. Maybe I should diagnose before I treat the disease?

Also along the same lines....

I recently delivered a server tower to a nearby company. Not only was it a pain in the ass to try and park a full sized truck in the middle of an outdoor mall, but it was as hot as hell in the server room. But needless to say, this building had somewhere around 50-60 different server towers of mixed age and type. At least they had the regular sort of things you'd expect any decent company to have for unloading and loading such large specialized equipment. I'd post a picture, but of course, no cameras allowed.

Computer...ish?

So,this week I did some work for my father's shipping business. We transported this huge eight foot tall block a few hundred miles and up into the hills. So this thing turns out to be some sort of relay device for cell phone carriers, and this place in the middle of nowhere, Idaho, was getting newly installed equipment for AT&T. It had all sorts of server-like qualities, and tons of boxes worth of stuff to put in it. Anyway, travel sucks, I like planes, and my dad's business will probably end up shipping another hundred of these.

New Computer

So I've decided that I will finally rebuild my computer. It will be made out of mostly the same crappy parts the other one was, but this time it will look better.
And I can't seem to find anything actually good.

So this old computer ran windows XP. The main reason I took it apart is because XP died on me. So now, I'm going to have to fix XP file by file just to get the thing running. I guess that is what I deserve for not creating backups of everything. But at least I will be able to use my own computer once I am done.

If you want to see what the progress is so far you will have to wait until I find my SD card for my camera. It won't store any pictures internally, so I have to use memory cards for anything.

Well, off to the land of cardboard, circuits, and duct tape for me!

Keyboard/Mouse Combo Review

I know it sounds kind of stupid, but I am going to tell you about something I bought.

The story starts out kind of like this. My keyboard at one point in time broke (keys went everywhere). Also, I only had a ball mouse. Terrible, I know. So I decided to splurge and get both a new keyboard and an optical mouse. So, I walked down to my local Electromagnetic-radiation-Shed and looked at what cheap, overpriced items they had on display. What caught my eye was a little yellow tag the yelled CLEARANCE!!! And look at the price! This unfortunate and unholy combination of equipment was on sale! I could get two things for a low price of only $19.99 plus tax!

For those of you who want to see this, or you just have a poor imagination, or perhaps you don't know what a keyboard OR a mouse look like, here is a picture.



As you can see I purchased the first black, sleek, shiny piece of flimsy plastic I laid my eyes on. As well as that, I placed some tape over the logos so as to not publicly shame the company who made this later on in the post.

So the first thing I noticed was how lite light this was. I went up to the front counter and asked if they had anything besides display boxes. Of course, he told me that the actually was something in those boxes. Now I, already feeling like an idiot, decided to quietly purchase my sad pieces of plastic and promptly left the store.

Enough storytelling for now. Let's get to the part where I tell you something interesting.

So the first thing I noticed after I got home and the box fell open was that the store clerk had not lied to me, and the was in fact an ultra light lite keyboard and mouse combo packed into there. And after that, something more amazing fell out! This combo actually came with four AA batteries to power the wireless devices included! If the price of this wasn't enough, they actually include the power source to seal the deal.

So now that I realized I wouldn't have to make another trip to the store for batteries, I decided I could try it right now. I lifted the (near weightless) keyboard and turned it over, looking for any slot that could contain batteries. As I lifted the little battery door, the clip that holds it in place snapped. Of course, I didn't care to waste the gas money to drive back and get it replaced, so i made do with forever holding the batteries in place with tape.

After the little trouble with the batteries, I decided to give it a test run. So I plugged it in and booted it up. And guess what? It actually works like it says! There is no software required to use this and it works without any configuration.

But, there is one problem. As soon as I lean back, pulling the keyboard a few inches away from the computer, I lose wireless signal. Ok, so I pull out the little extension cord for the USB adapter and it works again. But yet again, if I am farther than a foot away from the little receiver I cannot type or use the mouse properly.

As you're wondering by now what this little receiver looks like, here is what it looks like now, with some modifications so that I can get up to three feet.


Now that there was no interference, and there was a direct line of sight, and I was within three feet, I could type and use the mouse in peace.

So I decided to do a little bit more testing. First of all, this works on everything I have tried. It works in BIOS, in Windows anything, in Ubuntu, with a Mac, and even on my Xbox 360 for typing messages!

Now for a list of what really is wrong with it.
First, the combo feels light cheep, not light amazing. The keyboard does not sit flat, no matter what. They keys click really loudly. The mouse has only three buttons, and the scroll wheel is anything but reliable. The obvious problems with signal. As well as this, the mouse has now given up the ghost, with nothing but a constant red flashing light to show that there is even any power going through it.

All in all, I actually think for twenty bucks, this could have been worse. I still haven't changed the batteries that came with it, and I've been using it for almost a year now. I have better keyboard than this, but this is my favorite for using on the Xbox, first of all because it's my only wireless keyboard, and secondly I don't worry about throwing it against a wall, because it has survived that before, and it wouldn't cost that much to replace.

So if you see this on the shelf for $20 and you need something cheap that you can abuse at long medium range, this might be worth it, although by now they have probably released a more sturdy revision on the block of plastic.