ARRRR…. Windows is a pain!!!

OK, to anyone that says a windows install is easier than a Linux install, explain to me why I need a second computer to go download drivers, then .Net framework so I can get the NIC to work on the computer. Still don’t have it…

UPDATE:  OK, NIC drivers and most of the other missing drivers are installed, but I still can’t find the PCI driver, which is preventing me from installing the Sound Card drivers, which I have, but refuse to load.  The only problem I had with a simmialr model Dell when I loaded Linux was no driver for the installed NIC, so I just went out and bought one for $12.

Note to self, if asked by anyone in my family or group of friends to help with a computer problem, it will only happen if I can install whatever operating system I find fit…

Sever Weather Preparedness Week

This week is Sever Weather Preparedness Week in Illinois and Indiana. I know many Ham radio operators use this week to get their radios working for when the first storm hits. Many weather spotters get out to training classes (mine is actually in two weeks). I hope that most families will do something, even if it’s going out a buying a NOAA Weather Radio or buying some extra batteries and flash lights for when the power gets knocked out. You never know when the weather might effect you. Last year, in my county, we got hit by both a micro burst and a tornado. Many of them effected some of the same people, as they hit only a few towns away from each other. Near my work (the next county over) another micro burst hit during yet another storm. That one knocked down power lines for nearly an mile and a half down a major road. The worst part is, I’m hearing from many weather experts that this year has the potential to be even worse than last. The norther Illinois/souther Wisconsin area has already seen their first sever weather of the year (early January). Emergencies always remind my of my Boy Scout days, “Always be prepared.”

Props to Trent

I’m a little late in getting this out, but I want to give props to Nine Inch Nails and headman Trent Reznor on releasing their new CD, Ghosts I, under the Creative Commons – Non-Commercial licensing. This lets anyone copy, alter, and distribute their work as long as it’s not for commercial gain. Reznor himself uploaded the CD to the popular bit-torrent site Pirate Bay. I hope more artists realize that their music will reach more people if they share it under a CC license. NIN is still selling their album on CD and on BluRay disk for the collection of new work (Ghosts I-IV). This is a big step in the music industry and the opposite of what Metallica‘s drummer, Lars Ulrich, is trying to do with the music industry.

I will be downloading from The Pirate Bay tonight. Can’t wait.

Free our music!!

Yet another BlackBerry outage

A little history to my problem.  I just updated my phone plan to Sprint/Nextel’s Simply every thing plan that literally gives me unlimited everything on my phone for $5 more a month than what I’m paying now.  I did this yesterday and was told everything should be up and running by 6pm local time.  Well, 6 came and went and I still didn’t have data service.  I contacted Customer Service today and spent over an hour and 45 minutes on the phone with them.  They were great and wanted to get to the bottom of the problem.  We tried re-setting the radio, re-booting the phone, re-setting the phone, and re-configuring the ip settings.  Nothing worked.  They said everything looked set up correctly on their side as well.  Finaly an answer.  Research In Motion (RIM), the company behind Black Berry, had a nation wide server outage.  It was masked behind everything else.  The only funny thing is that NO ONE has reported this any where on the internet.  I hear about outages all the time, and none of them ever seem to affect me, but I have heard nothing about this one.  Oh well, I’ll probably end up spending more time on the phone with Sprint on Monday.