Etherpunk

New workstation

So -- my Sager NP 5750 is going flakey. This isn't an OS issue. Occasionally Windows will just turn off or reboot. I will also find that, usually after this reboot, the bios locks when I have USB devices plugged in. I will havce to unplug these, turn it off, unplug the power, and let it sit for a few minutes. So... I'm going to look for a replacement. I now have no need for a laptop so I'm probably going to go for a Desktop. Since I can't afford it with cash, and I've been waiting until I could (for probably over 2 months now) however this has made me go "well fuck...", I'll have to use credit. So at the moment I'm looking at a Dell. More specifically the Inspiron 530. The slim versions seem to cost a little more and I don't care about case size. I'm not fully trusting of 64-bit Windows yet, so I have to go with the Intel Core2 Duo route and Vista still acts like shit when it comes to gaming, so I'm getting XP -- or at least an XP capable machine (meaning the damn thing needs to have drivers for XP at the very least). I'm going to stick with just 2GB of memory since 1GB served me just fine, except when I tried to program / run HL2 in Vista (which worked, just loading sucked). So I still think 2GB is fine and I can always upgrade later -- assuming they don't fuck me on slots. I'm worried about Dell support though.. they seem to still be lacking in their area. In fact, it seems that unless you get the insane warranties -- they treat you like shit. Which is enough to make me consider going to HP instead.. but I would suspect they are roughly the same in attitude in tech support. I have no reason to believe they are different.

Mice

I'm going to be going to a wired mouse as well. While the MX 1000 was probably the BEST mouse I will /ever/ own, the MX Revolution just was too flakey for me. The LED's aren't working anymore. It never tells me when it needs a charge anymore. It will occassionally just stop working until I unplug, re-seat, and do some voodoo. So, I'm probably going to get a Dell "Premium" mouse since they offer another G7/MX Revolution (I know they aren't the same but for my purposes they are). When I was using a laptop to travel / do things -- wireless fucking ROCKED. Now that I have no need for that, it has no value to me anymore aside from now having wires and consuming batteries or needing to be re-charged. Backups My 160GB backups aren't sufficient anymore and my single 300GB drive just isn't cutting it. I need more space. So I'm also going to order three 500GB WesterDigital MyBooks. One will /always/ be plugged in and on. The other two will serve as backups to this one, with one being swapped out and stored in a closet. I'm more concerned about a surge destroying one than I am a fire -- thus the reason on why I want it unplugged and out of the way. Hopefully this extra 200GB will help.

Conclusion

All in all, I'm probably going to spend about $1,700 -- if I want a new monitor. I'm thinking on getting a 19" capable of doing 1600x1200, but I may go up to a 22" -- I dunno.

NONE of my cd-roms worked. Even my emulated ones (that I use for mounting ISO files -- which, by the way, Virtual Clone Drive rox!) I found the answer on this page.

To resolve this behavior, follow these steps: Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe). Locate the UpperFilters value under the following key in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click OK. Locate the LowerFilters value under the same key in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click OK.