Normally, I nearly never have dreams.
Actually, it would be more accurate to say, I normally don't remember my dreams.
Within the past year, I can remember about 4 of my dreams after waking from them. I've found out that I normally remember my dreams more, if I sleep at irregular hours, my sleep is uninterrupted, and I can sleep as long as I want without being waken by alarms.
This was last night's
It started off, I was heading through the security of a large building. It was on the ground floor, and the room was huge. There was a security desk in the middle, with a metal detector, and on both sides, the walls carried on for miles...or so I thought, as there was no lights further then 50 metres away, so I was unable to judge the true distance.
Anyway, I went through the security check, and headed for the lift behind the desk.
As I stepped into the lift, I thought about who I was about to meet. I don't actually know who this person is, but I know what I feel like. In the dream, I feel as though I am meeting someone of importance, like a President, or local leader. But, on the other hand, I have a feeling of uncertainty, or maybe even fear.
The fear I am feeling, is that if I mess something up here, I'm dead. My persona likens this to meeting a mob boss, or warlord...someone with power, but not bound by law.
On my way up there, the lift breaks, and I step out onto one of the floors.
This floor is being redecorated, the walls are plasterboard, electrical equipment is hanging out, and more importantly, there are gaps between the celling above, and the floor above that.
Seeing that there is a way to the top floor by climbing through these gaps, I start to ascend.
Now this is were the dream branches off.
Next, I'm looking through an old photo album, the pictures are all in black and white, and I know that these are pictures of people I used to go to school with. Why they are in black and white, I do not know.
Now, I'm talking to someone while looking at this album. Its this woman, dressed in a suit, with a unpersonal (is that even a real word?), business like air to her. She reminds me of a unfeeling government agent. She says that "they" have lost track of a lot of people in this book, and they are currently searching European countries for their locations.
Next, I'm in France, nothing suggests that I'm there, but I just know it.
I'm walking with this woman, and several other of "them", all in business like attire.
We are looking for these people in the album.
Across the road, I spot a large building, and as I separate from "them" to have a look. As I walk over to it, I hear someone behind me say "B____". At first, I'm not sure I heard it, but then the voice says it again.
I turn around, and there's someone from my primary school (Daniel ____). We greet one another, and slow start walking to this building, while talking.
We are slowly joined by more people I used to know, I do not see their faces, but I know that I used to know them. We start walking faster, as "they" start to realise that I'm no longer with them. It turns into a run, as we start going down the back streets.
We then enter a small corridor in the side of a building. As we descend some stairs, Daniel laughs that "B___ will pay for the drinks".
Me, feeling suddenly shocked, checks how much money I've actually got. I pull out a bunch of US Dollars out of my pocket (but I'm in France?), and start to count as we walk down the stairs. Daniel pushes my hand back in my pocket, and says "only joking, we're not paying for anything".
As the group reaches the bottom of the stairs, there are two doors. On the door on the right, there are a bunch of teenagers waiting for the door to open. These teenagers are dressed in the distinctive (and horrible) uniform of my secondary school.
Our group goes to the left door, and wait a couple of seconds for the door to open.
It opens, and I realise we are going into a bar, and I try to quickly think what age in France you have to be to drink in a bar. Luckily, even though I am 17, I've been told I could easily pass for someone over 21, so I carry on walking.
The bar is empty, and part of our group (which is now nearly 20 in size) jumps over the bar, and starts taking drinks from behind there, and bringing them too the tables.
I sit down on one of the stools near someone I knew called Jack ____, who is downing shots of something green. I then get called over to a table, where someone is trying to tell me something.
As I sit down, the person (Matt ____), is eating a curry, with some sort of bread.
He says, through watery eyes, "come with me to get some water, this curry is burning".
We walked to the kitchen area, and open the doors.
Suddenly, I'm standing in the middle of this hospital corridor. People are moving about in the distance, so it looks busy, but not crowded.
I realise that everybody's gone.
So, that was one of my remembered dreams.
I could come up with a load of reasons for each part of the dream, like what each part signifies, but I rather wouldn't.
One thing however, that may have triggered part of the dream, was what I read in the newspapers a couple of weeks ago.
A local teenager had brought towards a local magistrates court on charges of assault and robbery, and had been given an ASBO [?]
The thing that got me, was that I knew the guy.
He sat two seats away from me for 4 years in primary school (ages 7-11), and was always a funny guy. The picture in the newspaper only resembled him a tiny bit. Age was a factor there, but the shaved head and scars almost made me not remember at all.
Now I think about it, after the last day of primary school, I've only actually spoken to about 20% of the people who were in my class, and stayed in contact with less then 5%.
Since I left secondary school, i've talked to about 10% of the people in my year, and only stayed in contact with less then 10 (people, not percent).
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Messed up design
I'm sorry, but the design will look messed up if you are not using the resolution 1280x960.
I've been trying to make it so that if you go to this site with 800x600, or 1024x768, then the background image and the main image will fit on the screen, or separate images will show.
However, I'm not very sure how to do this, so for the past 2 hours I've been messing around with CSS and Javascript trying to get it to work.
So, again, I'm sorry about that, if anyone knows of a way that I can do this, feel free to comment.
I've been trying to make it so that if you go to this site with 800x600, or 1024x768, then the background image and the main image will fit on the screen, or separate images will show.
However, I'm not very sure how to do this, so for the past 2 hours I've been messing around with CSS and Javascript trying to get it to work.
So, again, I'm sorry about that, if anyone knows of a way that I can do this, feel free to comment.
A Great Start to the Half-Term.
Well, it didn't start off too great.
About 3 in the morning some idiots a couple of roads away decided that now was the time to set off a years worth of fireworks.
So, I went to watch TV for a bit.
I'm flicking through the channels, and I see Robocop has just started.
Robocop!
Yes, I haven't seen that since I was about 8 or 9 years old!
I begin to start watching it, when I realise that this isn't the live-action series I used to watch, but the very first movie. Non-the-less, I carry on watching it.
The main difference between the series and the movie, is violence.
I mean, the movie information said it was an "ultraviolent sci-fi", and it sure was.
The TV series on the other hand was aimed at a much younger audience, and I remember a lot of non-lethal scenes in it, contrary to the especially graphic movie.
Even though it wasn't the same as I remember, it was a real joy to suddenly hear the theme tune after 8 years, and while watching it now, it produced a different response from me.
Back then when I first watched it, on a VHS sitting in front of my sofa, it was a basic good v evil. Robocop was the good, saving the citizens of the city from the baddies. Mixed with gunfights and explosions, it was enough just to watch that.
When I watch it now, a lot more layers are shown.
For example, before it was just, a dead cop....turned into a robot.
Now, there is the aspect of dehumanization, how the scientists created an (originally) unthinking machine out of a human, and how "it" obeyed those orders without question.
There is also the political situation in the fictional world, where giant corporations are in charge, where they own the police and are able to be above the law.
And then there is Robocop, who is a physical manifestation of the law, and able to follow it to the letter, and not be wavered by things like money or power.
Another thing which I remembered, was hearing "OCP".
In the Robocop universe, "OCP" is Omni Consumer Products, and is the megacorporation controlling everything.
When I first watched Robocop, I remember thinking that the OCP was the police force, like saying "NYPD" or Metropolitan Police. I'm not sure why I did that, why I never grasped that it was a corporation running things. Maybe it was because it was unthinkable to me, for a company to be that powerful that the police answers to it, or maybe I was only watching it for the gunfights.
About 3 in the morning some idiots a couple of roads away decided that now was the time to set off a years worth of fireworks.
So, I went to watch TV for a bit.
I'm flicking through the channels, and I see Robocop has just started.
Robocop!
Yes, I haven't seen that since I was about 8 or 9 years old!
I begin to start watching it, when I realise that this isn't the live-action series I used to watch, but the very first movie. Non-the-less, I carry on watching it.
The main difference between the series and the movie, is violence.
I mean, the movie information said it was an "ultraviolent sci-fi", and it sure was.
The TV series on the other hand was aimed at a much younger audience, and I remember a lot of non-lethal scenes in it, contrary to the especially graphic movie.
Even though it wasn't the same as I remember, it was a real joy to suddenly hear the theme tune after 8 years, and while watching it now, it produced a different response from me.
Back then when I first watched it, on a VHS sitting in front of my sofa, it was a basic good v evil. Robocop was the good, saving the citizens of the city from the baddies. Mixed with gunfights and explosions, it was enough just to watch that.
When I watch it now, a lot more layers are shown.
For example, before it was just, a dead cop....turned into a robot.
Now, there is the aspect of dehumanization, how the scientists created an (originally) unthinking machine out of a human, and how "it" obeyed those orders without question.
There is also the political situation in the fictional world, where giant corporations are in charge, where they own the police and are able to be above the law.
And then there is Robocop, who is a physical manifestation of the law, and able to follow it to the letter, and not be wavered by things like money or power.
Another thing which I remembered, was hearing "OCP".
In the Robocop universe, "OCP" is Omni Consumer Products, and is the megacorporation controlling everything.
When I first watched Robocop, I remember thinking that the OCP was the police force, like saying "NYPD" or Metropolitan Police. I'm not sure why I did that, why I never grasped that it was a corporation running things. Maybe it was because it was unthinkable to me, for a company to be that powerful that the police answers to it, or maybe I was only watching it for the gunfights.
Friday, October 19, 2007
How to Burn a DVD with MyDVD
MyDVD is a piece of DVD burning software made by Roxio.
Frankly, I hate the damn thing, it always crashes on my computer.
However, everyone else I talk to seems to like it, and its the only DVD burner i've found which can make menus (if someone knows of another, please tell me!).
--
Anyway, say you have some home movies you want to burn to DVD, so you can play them on your DVD player, this guide will help you set it up.
I'm sorry for the self-made censorship in this guide, but as you can probably guess, its not home movies I'm burning. Some of my fellow torrent users say I'm being too paranoid about it, and they're probably right, but its always better to be safe then sorry.
!!
There's an error which drove me nuts when I first started using MyDVD. The problem is that when you try to add a file to the menu, it doesn't let you.
This is due to some stupid DivX incompatibility, but, there is a very useful forum post here which explains exactly what to do in this situation
http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=8841
Okay, let us begin.
1. Buy the product.
I'm glad I remembered to mention this. Its not exactly cheap, Roxio sells it for about $50 (£24.50), which is another reason for not getting it.
2. Open it
(Simple so far)
You should now see the main menu, it looks like this
3. You will then want to click, "Add Movie"
Browse for the movie clip(s) you want to add, then highlight it, and click add.
4. Now, you should have that movie clip on the main screen.
We come to making the chapters now. This part gives the feeling of watching a real DVD.
Right click on movie name in the "Project View" part at the bottom left, and click on edit chapters.
Here, you can choose where you want the chapters to be. I normally just put it for once every 10 minutes.
6. Now, this DVD is ready to burn, its completely watchable, but....it doesn't look too nice.
What we'll do is change the backgrounds and the music around.
Go to the left hand menu, and choose "change menu background" from the edit section.
Browse for a picture (I usually choose a wallpaper from the movie or anime, or if I'm burning something rare, it'll make it on photoshop).
You can now you the font and colour buttons at the top to change the font or colour of the text on this menu.
You can also delete the writing "My Menu", or put a title of your own
Do the same on the other menus (the ones with the chapters, check the bottom left of your screen)
7. Music.
Ah, music, transforming an otherwise lifeless menu into whatever you want.
Do the same as you did for the background, except this time, choose "Change menu audio". Browse for a song (I normally choose songs from the movie's soundtrack), and add that to all menus.
Viola, it's done.
8. Click on the preview button at the top, and run through your menus to make sure they all work, and that you haven't missed out any fonts or music.
Then, you can click on your movie in the preview, and click on next scene. you don't need to preview the entire movie, but just watch parts of it to make sure audio is fine and in synch. Trust me, nothings worse then being halfway through a movie when suddenly the sound messes up.
Now to burn.
9. Burning.
First, place a DVD+R, or RW, or whatever else, into your disk drive (make sure you disk drive is able to burn DVDs first, I had that trouble, 2 hours trying to get the damn thing working before I noticed it was too old to burn them).
Now click on burn (next to preview).
Choose your disk drive from the list, enter in a disk name, and choose a burn speed (the slower the burn, the better quality, or so i'm told).
Click burn, and there you go.
It will now encode on a 1:1 basis. That means, if your movie is 1 hour long, it will take 1 hour to encode. Then it will burn. If you set it to burn at 16x, then it will burn at 16x the length of the movie (e.g 1 hour divided by 16 = 3.75 mintues...I think).
Thats it, buy yourself some CD pens, write down whats on there, and there you go.
Frankly, I hate the damn thing, it always crashes on my computer.
However, everyone else I talk to seems to like it, and its the only DVD burner i've found which can make menus (if someone knows of another, please tell me!).
--
Anyway, say you have some home movies you want to burn to DVD, so you can play them on your DVD player, this guide will help you set it up.
I'm sorry for the self-made censorship in this guide, but as you can probably guess, its not home movies I'm burning. Some of my fellow torrent users say I'm being too paranoid about it, and they're probably right, but its always better to be safe then sorry.
!!
There's an error which drove me nuts when I first started using MyDVD. The problem is that when you try to add a file to the menu, it doesn't let you.
This is due to some stupid DivX incompatibility, but, there is a very useful forum post here which explains exactly what to do in this situation
http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=8841
Okay, let us begin.
1. Buy the product.
I'm glad I remembered to mention this. Its not exactly cheap, Roxio sells it for about $50 (£24.50), which is another reason for not getting it.
2. Open it
(Simple so far)
You should now see the main menu, it looks like this
3. You will then want to click, "Add Movie"
Browse for the movie clip(s) you want to add, then highlight it, and click add.
4. Now, you should have that movie clip on the main screen.
We come to making the chapters now. This part gives the feeling of watching a real DVD.
Right click on movie name in the "Project View" part at the bottom left, and click on edit chapters.
Here, you can choose where you want the chapters to be. I normally just put it for once every 10 minutes.
6. Now, this DVD is ready to burn, its completely watchable, but....it doesn't look too nice.
What we'll do is change the backgrounds and the music around.
Go to the left hand menu, and choose "change menu background" from the edit section.
Browse for a picture (I usually choose a wallpaper from the movie or anime, or if I'm burning something rare, it'll make it on photoshop).
You can now you the font and colour buttons at the top to change the font or colour of the text on this menu.
You can also delete the writing "My Menu", or put a title of your own
Do the same on the other menus (the ones with the chapters, check the bottom left of your screen)
7. Music.
Ah, music, transforming an otherwise lifeless menu into whatever you want.
Do the same as you did for the background, except this time, choose "Change menu audio". Browse for a song (I normally choose songs from the movie's soundtrack), and add that to all menus.
Viola, it's done.
8. Click on the preview button at the top, and run through your menus to make sure they all work, and that you haven't missed out any fonts or music.
Then, you can click on your movie in the preview, and click on next scene. you don't need to preview the entire movie, but just watch parts of it to make sure audio is fine and in synch. Trust me, nothings worse then being halfway through a movie when suddenly the sound messes up.
Now to burn.
9. Burning.
First, place a DVD+R, or RW, or whatever else, into your disk drive (make sure you disk drive is able to burn DVDs first, I had that trouble, 2 hours trying to get the damn thing working before I noticed it was too old to burn them).
Now click on burn (next to preview).
Choose your disk drive from the list, enter in a disk name, and choose a burn speed (the slower the burn, the better quality, or so i'm told).
Click burn, and there you go.
It will now encode on a 1:1 basis. That means, if your movie is 1 hour long, it will take 1 hour to encode. Then it will burn. If you set it to burn at 16x, then it will burn at 16x the length of the movie (e.g 1 hour divided by 16 = 3.75 mintues...I think).
Thats it, buy yourself some CD pens, write down whats on there, and there you go.
How to make a successful blog!
If I knew that, then I would be getting more than one visitor per day.
But, I have been looking around, and one of the main points that bloggers tend to mention, is that you blog about a subject you know, and you stick with it.
Well, the problem for me, is that I do not know much about one particular subject to make it interesting for my readers.
I could write little how-to guides, but those types of things are found all over the internet, and it is very unlikely that someone searching for a solution to their problem would come across this site.
The only thing I could write which I know alot about; is currently the trading of virtual copyrighted material in violation of copyright laws, aka, warez.
However, Google's (who owns blogger.com) copyright policy prohibits this, and the content will likely get removed, and/or my account maybe disabled, so it wouldn't be in the best interests of this blog to start posting about it.
I could write reviews of films, I've gotten quite good at that (A's in Film Studies! First time I've got A's in ages), but unless you're a film fan, this blog will not be very appealing to you.
So, now what?
Should I just leave this blog, not update it?
I mean, what's the point of writing in it, if there's nothing interesting to say?
But, I have been looking around, and one of the main points that bloggers tend to mention, is that you blog about a subject you know, and you stick with it.
Well, the problem for me, is that I do not know much about one particular subject to make it interesting for my readers.
I could write little how-to guides, but those types of things are found all over the internet, and it is very unlikely that someone searching for a solution to their problem would come across this site.
The only thing I could write which I know alot about; is currently the trading of virtual copyrighted material in violation of copyright laws, aka, warez.
However, Google's (who owns blogger.com) copyright policy prohibits this, and the content will likely get removed, and/or my account maybe disabled, so it wouldn't be in the best interests of this blog to start posting about it.
I could write reviews of films, I've gotten quite good at that (A's in Film Studies! First time I've got A's in ages), but unless you're a film fan, this blog will not be very appealing to you.
So, now what?
Should I just leave this blog, not update it?
I mean, what's the point of writing in it, if there's nothing interesting to say?
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Changing the Theme?
Even though nearly nobody even looks at this blog, I was wondering if I should change the theme?
I think this current theme is good (at the right resolutions), but I fancy changing it to something else.
The new one will have a bunch of my favourite fictional characters at the top, vectored, and arranged around the main title.
Apart from that, I have no ideas what else to do it.
Anyway, i've made a poll, to your right, vote if you want.
I think this current theme is good (at the right resolutions), but I fancy changing it to something else.
The new one will have a bunch of my favourite fictional characters at the top, vectored, and arranged around the main title.
Apart from that, I have no ideas what else to do it.
Anyway, i've made a poll, to your right, vote if you want.
Annoying Machines
Little note: I've been thinking about images to add to my blog, to help illustrate my posts, but the only camera I have is one on my phone, and pictures taken from mobile phones normally turn out horrible.
----------------------------
Have you ever had a day when you've thought all technology is against you?
Well, this was my day.
Number One
My Dad works out the finances for a communications company, and as a result of this, he sometimes is able to pick up leftover computer parts for free.
Recently, he got a Dell laptop, about 2 years old and in perfect condition. But, the only snag was, no-one knew the password for any of the accounts on it. The people at his work aren't too computer savvy, so he asked me to have a look at it.
Firstly, none of the default passwords worked. Ok, I wasn't really expecting it too anyway.
Secondly, I tried booting a password recoverer from my USB, didn't work.
Thirdly, booted Linux from my USB, but I still wasn't able to find out or remove the password.
So, I told him this, and said it would just be better to reinstall windows.
I did that, as there wasn't any important files on it, and now there is a new laptop sitting in front of me.
But now, what do I do with it. The company doesn't want it back and my Dads got enough computers, so I was going to use it.
Then, my sister steps in (12 years old).
She whines that I've already got a computer, and that she would like one to do her "homework" (notice I said "would like", not "want", my sister is much more manipulative then the average 12 year old, and has found out ways of getting things her way).
So, my Dad agrees, and suddenly.....I have a horrible vision.
I pass her the laptop, and I'm almost out the room when a voice from behind asks, "B___, would you mind setting this up for your sister". Dammit, so close, another 5 seconds and I would have been out of range.
So, no sooner did I agree, my sister presented me with a list. I don't know how she wrote it so fast, 5 minutes ago she didn't even know she was getting a laptop...or did she? Knocking the paranoia out of my head, I took the list and the laptop, and went to my room to set it all up.
The list went as follows.
1. Remove boot up error (the laptop previously had XP Pro on it, so it asks to either load Home or Pro at boot up).
2. Install MS Office (I tried to persuade her to use OpenOffice, or another package that wasn't going to eat up your memory and want more, but she wouldn't listen).
3. Connect the laptop to the wireless network.
4. Get all updates for XP
5. Install DVD player
6. Install iTunes (evil!!)
7. Put on Photoshop
8. Put on Firefox
9. Put on Stumbleupon
10. Put on Zonealarm
11. Put on Avast.
So, over the day I worked my way through that list, until all I had left was to connect it to the network, the DVD player, firefox and get the updates.
Have you ever tried to use a wireless network.
I'm with BT, and I use a BT Home Hub [?]
It has slots for two Ethernet cables in it, one which goes to my computer, the other to the main computer. I previously had my pc connected wirelessly, but it is not as good as wired.
The reasons? The BT adverts show how good it is to connect wirelessly. But its not, its horrible.
First of all, every time I restarted my pc, I would spend 10 minutes frantically clicking the "CONNECT" button, until I would finally get a connection. Secondly, its liable to cutting out for no apparent reason, and after that, you have to click the connect button again and again until it connects. Thirdly, its slowwww. Really slow. It used to take me 2 days to download a 700mb file, that's 2 days none stop, and having to reconnect the damn thing every hour. I had to use bittorent or a download manager, for everything, otherwise my download would cancel halfway through, and I would have to start again.
Now, with a wire, files of that size are normally done in a couple of hours, sometimes even sooner.
Anyway, now that my rant about using wireless is over, now comes my rant about setting it up.
The laptop is supposed to have a integrated receiver thing in it, but I couldn't even find the damn thing, let alone set it up.
So I used an old Belkin one I had lying around. I had to install it, then install the BT software on the computer. For some reason, I've lost both the manuals for these, so I had to set it up by memory.
I went into the BT Home Hubs settings, to find out what the key was to allow new devices onto the network. It came as quite a shock, when I realised that there was no key. In fact, there was no encryption at all. No password, nothing, new computers were automatically allowed on the wireless network if they wanted.
A huge moment of panic, my network has been wide open for the last year!!
The damn Setting had been reset to their default! I have no idea why, they shouldn't just decided to change.
So, after re-setting up the security, I connected the laptop the wireless network, and was pleased to see Google when I opened up the browser.
One less thing on the list.
I set it up to download service pack 2, and all of the latest downloads.
The next problem was the sound card. It wasn't installed.
Now, I'm not sure what to do in this situation, I have no Cd's to install the sound card, the laptop came with a power cord and a mouse.
So, I left that, and went onto the DVD player. I installed a some DVD software, and proceeded to watch a whole load of errors.
I installed DirectX 9, nothing, messed about with it a bit longer, but eventually gave up.
I now have this laptop, staring at me, wanting me to finish fixing it.
--------------
Number Two
Well, this isn't bad news, but I thought I'd put it in here.
A couple of days ago, I received a package from my Uncle. My Uncle runs a graphics design company up in London, and often does album covers for some British bands.
Anyway, I opened up the package, and there was an envelope and a large box. Inside the envelope was a birthday card, and inside the package was a present.
Now, this may not seem too unusual, but the thing is, my birthday is in April, and my Uncle will normally send a card or present up to 6 months late.
Anyway, inside was a 300gig external hard disk drive, which has been of great use, as I've been running out of space to store my newly download stuff.
----------------
Number Three
Next comes DVDs.
The first one is simple, our DVD player keeps on breaking. This is due to the DVD player's roof buckling under the weight of a PlayStation 2 on top of it. So, I took of the PlayStation, unscrewed the lid, reattached the wires that had been pulled up, and bent the lid back into shape. I then screwed it back up, and and placed a big piece of paper on top telling people to stop putting the PlayStation there.
But, this evening, I come to watch Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (a pretty good anime) [?], and the damn PlayStation is there again.
Next DVD problem was a little more complicated.
I had logged into the main PC to scan some photos, and the external DVD burner started whining horrible. This DVD burner is very old, and falling apart. It is missing half its cover, rattles, and I'm sure its actually pretty dangerous.
Anyway, it started whining, and getting louder and louder. The rule with this DVD burner, is if it does that, you hit it on the top, and that stops it (brilliant huh?)
So, I reach over, and (lightly) hit the top of it.
It got angry.
It got very angry.
This is what it sounded like
I kid you not, I thought it was going to take off like a helicopter and try to eat me.
So, in my panic, I yanked the power cable out of it, and it calmed down.
Then I realised, that there's still a DVD in it.
So, I unplug it from the computer, and start taking it apart. I took it apart while watching Ice Age 2, and it was relatively easy. I got the disk out, it didn't look too scratched, and I started to put it back together.
It got up to the point in Ice Age, where Sid is worshipped as the fire god, a I looked down at the screws on the floor in front of me. "Hang on second" I thought, "you only need 2 screws to put the final cover on, how come there are 6 here?"
Dammit, so, I re-take apart the DVD burner to try and find out where those screws came from.
I get to a part of the inside cover which latched onto the outside cover.
Now, no matter what I do, this thing won't come off. I resort to trying to pull it off physically.
Bad move, my hand slips, and my thumb runs down the edge of the metal.
"Ouch"
I retract my thumb, and notice a huge cut with blood coming out of it. As I put the burner down to go wash it, I trap the tip of my finger in the latch,
"Dammit" I'm thinking, "its had a taste of my blood, now it wants more"
After shaking off the carnivorous DVD burner, I wash my thumb, and apply a plaster to stop the bleeding. On the way back to the burner, I walk past the garage, and see a hammer hanging on the wall. Disregarding my urge to introduce it to the DVD burner, I walk back to the burner, and put it back together.
It runs find now, although I swear it got a purring tone to it now, like its content.
We have a mutual agreement now, I don't hit it, and it doesn't bite me.
----------------------------
Have you ever had a day when you've thought all technology is against you?
Well, this was my day.
Number One
My Dad works out the finances for a communications company, and as a result of this, he sometimes is able to pick up leftover computer parts for free.
Recently, he got a Dell laptop, about 2 years old and in perfect condition. But, the only snag was, no-one knew the password for any of the accounts on it. The people at his work aren't too computer savvy, so he asked me to have a look at it.
Firstly, none of the default passwords worked. Ok, I wasn't really expecting it too anyway.
Secondly, I tried booting a password recoverer from my USB, didn't work.
Thirdly, booted Linux from my USB, but I still wasn't able to find out or remove the password.
So, I told him this, and said it would just be better to reinstall windows.
I did that, as there wasn't any important files on it, and now there is a new laptop sitting in front of me.
But now, what do I do with it. The company doesn't want it back and my Dads got enough computers, so I was going to use it.
Then, my sister steps in (12 years old).
She whines that I've already got a computer, and that she would like one to do her "homework" (notice I said "would like", not "want", my sister is much more manipulative then the average 12 year old, and has found out ways of getting things her way).
So, my Dad agrees, and suddenly.....I have a horrible vision.
I pass her the laptop, and I'm almost out the room when a voice from behind asks, "B___, would you mind setting this up for your sister". Dammit, so close, another 5 seconds and I would have been out of range.
So, no sooner did I agree, my sister presented me with a list. I don't know how she wrote it so fast, 5 minutes ago she didn't even know she was getting a laptop...or did she? Knocking the paranoia out of my head, I took the list and the laptop, and went to my room to set it all up.
The list went as follows.
1. Remove boot up error (the laptop previously had XP Pro on it, so it asks to either load Home or Pro at boot up).
2. Install MS Office (I tried to persuade her to use OpenOffice, or another package that wasn't going to eat up your memory and want more, but she wouldn't listen).
3. Connect the laptop to the wireless network.
4. Get all updates for XP
5. Install DVD player
6. Install iTunes (evil!!)
7. Put on Photoshop
8. Put on Firefox
9. Put on Stumbleupon
10. Put on Zonealarm
11. Put on Avast.
So, over the day I worked my way through that list, until all I had left was to connect it to the network, the DVD player, firefox and get the updates.
Have you ever tried to use a wireless network.
I'm with BT, and I use a BT Home Hub [?]
It has slots for two Ethernet cables in it, one which goes to my computer, the other to the main computer. I previously had my pc connected wirelessly, but it is not as good as wired.
The reasons? The BT adverts show how good it is to connect wirelessly. But its not, its horrible.
First of all, every time I restarted my pc, I would spend 10 minutes frantically clicking the "CONNECT" button, until I would finally get a connection. Secondly, its liable to cutting out for no apparent reason, and after that, you have to click the connect button again and again until it connects. Thirdly, its slowwww. Really slow. It used to take me 2 days to download a 700mb file, that's 2 days none stop, and having to reconnect the damn thing every hour. I had to use bittorent or a download manager, for everything, otherwise my download would cancel halfway through, and I would have to start again.
Now, with a wire, files of that size are normally done in a couple of hours, sometimes even sooner.
Anyway, now that my rant about using wireless is over, now comes my rant about setting it up.
The laptop is supposed to have a integrated receiver thing in it, but I couldn't even find the damn thing, let alone set it up.
So I used an old Belkin one I had lying around. I had to install it, then install the BT software on the computer. For some reason, I've lost both the manuals for these, so I had to set it up by memory.
I went into the BT Home Hubs settings, to find out what the key was to allow new devices onto the network. It came as quite a shock, when I realised that there was no key. In fact, there was no encryption at all. No password, nothing, new computers were automatically allowed on the wireless network if they wanted.
A huge moment of panic, my network has been wide open for the last year!!
The damn Setting had been reset to their default! I have no idea why, they shouldn't just decided to change.
So, after re-setting up the security, I connected the laptop the wireless network, and was pleased to see Google when I opened up the browser.
One less thing on the list.
I set it up to download service pack 2, and all of the latest downloads.
The next problem was the sound card. It wasn't installed.
Now, I'm not sure what to do in this situation, I have no Cd's to install the sound card, the laptop came with a power cord and a mouse.
So, I left that, and went onto the DVD player. I installed a some DVD software, and proceeded to watch a whole load of errors.
I installed DirectX 9, nothing, messed about with it a bit longer, but eventually gave up.
I now have this laptop, staring at me, wanting me to finish fixing it.
--------------
Number Two
Well, this isn't bad news, but I thought I'd put it in here.
A couple of days ago, I received a package from my Uncle. My Uncle runs a graphics design company up in London, and often does album covers for some British bands.
Anyway, I opened up the package, and there was an envelope and a large box. Inside the envelope was a birthday card, and inside the package was a present.
Now, this may not seem too unusual, but the thing is, my birthday is in April, and my Uncle will normally send a card or present up to 6 months late.
Anyway, inside was a 300gig external hard disk drive, which has been of great use, as I've been running out of space to store my newly download stuff.
----------------
Number Three
Next comes DVDs.
The first one is simple, our DVD player keeps on breaking. This is due to the DVD player's roof buckling under the weight of a PlayStation 2 on top of it. So, I took of the PlayStation, unscrewed the lid, reattached the wires that had been pulled up, and bent the lid back into shape. I then screwed it back up, and and placed a big piece of paper on top telling people to stop putting the PlayStation there.
But, this evening, I come to watch Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (a pretty good anime) [?], and the damn PlayStation is there again.
Next DVD problem was a little more complicated.
I had logged into the main PC to scan some photos, and the external DVD burner started whining horrible. This DVD burner is very old, and falling apart. It is missing half its cover, rattles, and I'm sure its actually pretty dangerous.
Anyway, it started whining, and getting louder and louder. The rule with this DVD burner, is if it does that, you hit it on the top, and that stops it (brilliant huh?)
So, I reach over, and (lightly) hit the top of it.
It got angry.
It got very angry.
This is what it sounded like
I kid you not, I thought it was going to take off like a helicopter and try to eat me.
So, in my panic, I yanked the power cable out of it, and it calmed down.
Then I realised, that there's still a DVD in it.
So, I unplug it from the computer, and start taking it apart. I took it apart while watching Ice Age 2, and it was relatively easy. I got the disk out, it didn't look too scratched, and I started to put it back together.
It got up to the point in Ice Age, where Sid is worshipped as the fire god, a I looked down at the screws on the floor in front of me. "Hang on second" I thought, "you only need 2 screws to put the final cover on, how come there are 6 here?"
Dammit, so, I re-take apart the DVD burner to try and find out where those screws came from.
I get to a part of the inside cover which latched onto the outside cover.
Now, no matter what I do, this thing won't come off. I resort to trying to pull it off physically.
Bad move, my hand slips, and my thumb runs down the edge of the metal.
"Ouch"
I retract my thumb, and notice a huge cut with blood coming out of it. As I put the burner down to go wash it, I trap the tip of my finger in the latch,
"Dammit" I'm thinking, "its had a taste of my blood, now it wants more"
After shaking off the carnivorous DVD burner, I wash my thumb, and apply a plaster to stop the bleeding. On the way back to the burner, I walk past the garage, and see a hammer hanging on the wall. Disregarding my urge to introduce it to the DVD burner, I walk back to the burner, and put it back together.
It runs find now, although I swear it got a purring tone to it now, like its content.
We have a mutual agreement now, I don't hit it, and it doesn't bite me.
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