New Computer Blues

I try to avoid rants with a lot of technical terms, but today it just can't be helped. So if you've never built a computer or aren't familiar with the hassles and terms surrounding such an action, then today's rant might be better skipped.

In celebration of a raise in the last few months and a nice profit sharing check, I decided it was time to upgrade my rig. So I hopped on NewEgg and found some pretty good deals on the hardware I'd been looking at and ordered everything on the spot. The prices weren't the cheapest I've seen on the net, but they weren't far off, and I've done a lot of business with NewEgg over the years. Also, I have had to RMA things to them in the past and had no problems. So I know that they are reliable and easy to work with.

Well, all the stuff finally came in last night. So I spent the latter part of the evening assembling all my hardware. I wanted to stay up and finish, but I had big plans that wouldn't be quick, so I called it a night. Today I woke up and got right to work. Installed Windows XP, downloaded all my service packs and updates, and then started doing some research. I wanted some software to created a hard drive image so that I can rebuild my box quickly in the future. But I didn't want to be out another $60 for Norton Ghost. I ended up finding a little program called Self Image. It could create images from within Windows, and it had an executable that could be loaded onto a BartsPE boot disk. I installed it and started creating my image after I finished loading my standard software and settings.

Next I wanted a way to take snapshots of my registry when I installed programs. I plan on installing software to a separate hard drive, and when I restore my image I don't want to have to reinstall everything. So I found a program called CompareIT. I just export my registry before I install the software, and again afterwards. Run the program and then output the results to a text file. I can then rename that file to .reg and add the registry header in and I have a registry file that I can just click when I need to "reinstall" the software. Not the cleanest method in the world, but it works, its cheap, and I'll be able to use the software for other things as well.

Then I decided it was time to start installing stuff. That's when it all went wrong. It started with my DVD burner. All of a sudden it stopped reading disks. It had been working just fine all morning. I uninsulated it and did a hardware scan and it came back still unusable. Hours later after cable changes, using boot CD's to test the drive, and many other failed tactics, it turned out to be that I had to force PIO mode on my IDE channel instead of letting it auto detect. Then it worked, great!

Tired of working all day long, I wanted to play some. So I decided to install Titan Quest to play with some buddies that were online. I did my registry export, and started the install on my second hard drive. It made it about 75% of the way into the install, then it began spewing "delayed write" errors. I stopped the install, rebooted, and tried again. It resumed at the same file, and immediately started getting the errors again. I didn't want to believe it was my new hard drive, so I checked the disk thinking it was a scratch. The disk had some smudges, but no scratches. I decided I'd try to copy the files off my old computer, but got the same errors. Now things are looking bad. More reboots, and a few tries later I decide as a last resort to reformat my new hard drive again as a desperate attempt of hope.

When I opened up the disk manager, I noticed that my second hard drive said healthy, but no longer showed what its file system was. Both partitions on my other drive displayed NTFS correctly. So here I am hoping that this format works, or I get to use NewEgg's RMA system again. At least I know they are quick with return items.

Is it just me, or does everyone run into crazy wierd problems when building a new PC? This stuff should just hook up and work, I payed good money for it to do so! Well, wish me luck, I started a full format instead of a quick format on my 200Gb drive and don't know when it will end to see if it worked.

Monkey Buisness

For years now scientists have been telling us we come from monkeys. They don't have any way to prove it and it doesn't matter if we believe them or even care. But now things are going too damn far! Now people are actually questioning rather monkeys deserve the same rights as humans. That's right, they think that the same animals that can't work, are unable to progress beyond simple tools, and throw poo for fun deserve the same rights as humans do.

I am really at a loss for words. This is one of those moments that you wish you could find all these stupid people, line them up, and 1 by 1 slap sense into them. Evolution argument aside for now, despite everyone using the term "human rights", it's not something everyone just deserves. Those rights are earned in some fashion. At least by the majority of the human populace. And those that don't earn their way are a drain on the global economy and the progress of our civilization. I'm not talking about those that are unfortunate and are unable. I'm referring to able beings that just aren't willing. And frankly I think we should be looking into finding ways to revoke their "rights" instead of trying to find ways of giving our "rights" away to monkeys that would further hold us as a global community back.

Seriously folks, what in the hell would have to go through someone's head to even come up with this? I'll tell you what, when monkey's can hold down a steady job that improves our way of life and correctly file and pay his taxes, then we'll talk. But going back to the evolution point, they've acted like the simple minded primates that they are as long as we've known about em, I don't see them "evolving" anytime soon. Stop the madness people. There are more important things to concentrate on in this world.

Here is a link if your looking for more info.

Violence and Video Games Study that Looked Outside the Box!

I've been telling everyone I know, friends, family, and any stranger in a game store I happen to see that violence in video games is the least of a kids problems if he's even once contemplated picking up a weapon to use it on another human being. Unfortunately till now, most video game studies were performed on children that already had violent tendencies, or were based entirely by watching brain activity via an MRI and theorizing that increased activity in certain parts of the brain also meant increased likelyhood of bringing game events to the real world. Both types of tests are a complete failure of the scientific method. Dispite their failed testing procedures, both types have produced rather mixed data.

I have been asking for years now when someone would finally get around to doing a study correctly, and it appears that someone has finally got the ball rolling with some actual non biased testing. I'll try to sum it up. The study found that there are multiple personalities when it comes to gamers. Go figure, we aren't all monkey's trained to behave in the exact same manner. Anyways, they found they could generalize those tested into 3 categories.

The first group consisted of their most stable group. Which by the way consisted of 77 of the 125 tested. This group's mental state didn't change much after playing violent video games. The second group consisted of 22 of those tested. Those were of gamers that had low anger levels before gaming, but higher levels afterwards. Of those 22, only 2 were considered to be a cause for concern. The third group was limited to 8 members of the group. They started out with higher levels of anger, and actually calmed down to levels of the "stable" group after gaming.

Thye concluded that a major factor to the changes in anger level was the person's mental state before playing the game. Which indicates what I've been saying all along, troubled kids are more likely to get in trouble despite whatever cause you want to be the scapegoat. It's worth noting that just because their anger levels rose, doesn't mean they lost the capacity to determine right or wrong. It simply was an insight into how some people are effected by violence, and some aren't.

So yet I again I implore those that continue to blame video games to first look at the personal lives of these kids. Look at their parents, their friends, and most definitely look at their enemies. Most of these kids in the past have been the butt end of jokes from bullies all their lives. I know what your saying, kids have always had those problems at school. That is true, but it wasn't until the more recent generations that spanking your children, demanding their respect, and overall teaching them right or wrong become inappropriate. Not until recently did the # of work moms start to approach or out number stay out home mothers in most area's. And not until recently were things like prayer, the national anthem, and the right to enforce school policies with force taken away.

Kids are dealing with life differently now than their parents did because they are being raised differently and with different moral standards. They aren't being taught that their actions have consequences and that there are things worth believing in out here in the world. There is no sense of loyalty to any country, state, or god. And soon you will be able to add family to that list.

You want to stop teenage violence, then it's time to undue some of the last few decades work of unraveling everything this country was founded on. It's time for parents to realise that they are their kids example and law enforcement, not just their friend. And it's time to put the hippy idea's and political correctness with patriotism, religion, and morals to an end.

You can read more on the study here.

Why Not Weeds Instead of Grass?

I just came in from mowing my weeds. My grass is probably a few weeks off from being ready to mow yet. Which brings me to my point. Why haven't we adapted weeds for our yards instead of sticking with grass? You wouldn't have to spray paint your yard green anymore, and they come back earlier from winter. There are lots of weeds to choose from, and several would actually make very fine turf by growing along the ground instead of taller. On top of that, certain weeds are able to edge out all other forms of vegetation. So after your weed of choice takes over you wouldn't have to worry about the other nasty looking weeds coming back?

Its not a perfect idea, and some people are more allergic to certain types of weeds than they are cut grass. But I'm allergic to it all, so why not go for something that would make a nicer yard and possibly require mowing less often due to the growing pattern. This isn't something I plan on doing. Like I said, several of the best weeds tend to take over, and I don't know if my neighbors would want the same weed yard that I envision as a possible alternative to grass.

I know a lot of people further north than Oklahoma have different types of grass that are softer to walk on and look better in the yard than we have. Most yards here are of Bermuda grass. Which does a nice job of spreading, but isn't all that soft or nice to walk on. It also isn't real quick to come back after winter. So the move to weeds might only be a good solution in certain locations, but its something I've often thought about here in my dry state.

I Hate People

Weekend Edition by HumanFission

It truly astounds me how the human race has come so far with the overwhelming majority of us being complete idiots. I used to think my point of view was biased or tainted because of the work I do, but more and more I find that it just seems to be the standard. Stupid people have overtaken the world.

If you are reading this, and are already offended, just stop reading now. It doesn't get any better for you, because odds are, you're one of those people that make me want to let out a long, drawn-out sigh and break something (which is why my desk is stocked with soft non-breakable things).

One thing that further amazes me is our ability as a race to both completely rely and completely shun those few people who actually are making advancements that keep us moving "forward" in the realm of discovery. These people are commonly shunned as soon as they show any sort of mental prowess, and that lasts for most of their developmental years. However, the very people that shun them end up relying on them later in life. Even our society is defunct.

Back to the original statement: idiots. I would make a plea, try to appeal, or even flat out beg the people this rant covers to stop being lethargic, ignorant, idiots, but alas, even if I did, most wouldn't understand, and the rest would just become angry. I mean, who am I to go off on an attempt to better the world? Obviously neither I nor anyone else has any sort of right to try to get people to open their eyes and try to actually DO something, or BE something. According to most of the population, an attempt like that would make me some sort of self-righteous bigot, since I'm pointing out that people suck and they could do better. I mean…how dare I do such a thing?!

For those of you who may be reading this and aren't offended, perhaps even thinking of instances where you have felt somewhat the same, for you I have nothing. While this may have prompted a self-inspection to assess whether there are things that you do that fall into habit that could be done differently, or to actually attempt something on an independent level instead of giving up and looking elsewhere for someone else to do it for you, in the long-run, even this rant has had no impact. Because those of you who read and react in a way that may reveal some sort of logic or understanding, are the people who maintain an open enough mind to do that on your own. The rest of the people….well…your guess is as good as mine.