I'm bored. Having spent hours trying to patch various pages on my websites after my webhost decided to upgrade to php5, which in some weird way broke the functionality of some thirty or so pages spread across my sites. (Weird because it's really not a direct php5-issue it seems.) Anyway it meant some hours spent trying to find an answer on why the server decided to behave like it did, and - after having realized once again that free software programmers suck at providing structured documentation - some additional hours rewriting html-code, since I can't have the pages being gaga until I eventually can make the server realize that those pages too should be able to run php.

Of course, things would probably have been easier for me, if my sites hadn't been a patchwork of ten years worth of web development. Sometimes I do ask myself why I still keep them alive. Oh, right, two of them gives me pocket money. Sometimes. That's why.

Okaaay. I had 2.90 GB free space on C, and moved files worth some 300 MB from D to C, which means that I now have 3.45 GB free space on C. Because 2.90 - 0.3 = 3.45. Naturally. Computer math is apparently following mathematical rules from some parallel universe.

(I know that the logical explanation is the XP behaviour of removing system restore files, but with these numbers it shouldn't be anywhere near triggering such a move. (And if it had been triggered, the free space should have been much bigger.) So the explanation is instead most likely the usual XP "I play with this free space for no real reason until I suddenly at a random time of my choice choose to give it back" behaviour. Never try to understand your PC.)

My ancient laptop is kind of dead. Or not dead, since it works fine. What's really dead is the battery, making it not very laptop-y any more (if it's ever been, given its size and weight). Not that I can say I'm really all that bothered by it, since that particular computer only ever was a secondary one. And, well, it's old. As in new somewhere around 1998 I think. (I actually don't know for sure, since I bought it used around 2001-2002 or so, but its 266 MHz P2 64MB RAM 3GB HD sort of speaks for itself. In any case it's old enough for the obscure computer maker not to acknowledge the model any more. In fact, it's old and obscure enough not to be recognized by the entire web world.)

There aren't many things as pathetic as old computers by the way. Those hopeless pieces of junk that in a time that doesn't feel all that distant was wonderful high-tech. (A high-tech laptop from 1998 can just barely read CD-RW - after trying for a while, crashes when trying to use demanding USB equipment, and isn't really made for watching video on.) Now I mostly get angsty when turning it on. Time flies, and I can't help but feeling it's just slipping away from me. I mean, 2002 wasn't all that long ago, and still those things I wrote and did back then feels just... ancient. And pointless, useless stuff, but that's a different thing.

So, sun and 31 degrees C outside. That spells book, ice cream, and being lazy in the shadows to me. Angsting over the future, present and past will just have to wait a little more. And so will the master thesis writing from hell have to do. It's Sunday after all, and I think I have accommodated enough uni professors with my stupid politeness and eagerness to please lately. Why do I never learn that being nice never pays off?

( geriatric laptop meets middle-aged main PC )

Tech talk, because I'm still suffering from the aftermath of a cold, and I'm bored.

( How to install a Netgear wireless USB adapter on an eight year old PC )

OK, so I should have been able to guess that when they say that my current Internet connection provider service will end 2007-01-31, they don't in fact mean including that day, but sometime during the day. Which means I shouldn't be surprised over the fact that my net connection abruptly was cut off sometime around 14:00. I knew the change was coming after all.
( Computer adventures )

Edit: And 2 minutes after I posted the entry, I get a new bluescreen (but bluescreen and automatic reboot this time)... *slams head in desk*

It's raining again, but at least I succeeded in get some things done outside in the window of opportunity. The grass is now short, and my sister have had the opportunity to let plums fall on my head. And water drops. I still wonder if she had counted that in, when she was so quick to chose to stand on the ladder, while I got the task holding it steady. Below her and the tree.

( The Battle of the Free Space )

So NASA is going to name their new carrier rockets for the space shuttle replacement Ares?! Now that is... an interesting choice of name. But I guess we all have our personal house gods to honour.

In other news, I've re-learned to use IRC for the first time in, I don't know, eight years maybe. Even if re-learning might be the wrong word since now it's mostly for the download capabilities I felt a need for it. Mainly because I finally tired to wait for the scanlators to get around releasing the later translated chapters of Vinland Saga in torrent form. And while I still think IRC is a unnecessarily techy way to distribute things, I must admit it's pretty smooth too.

After 18 years of faithful service, the family TV more or less gave up a couple of days ago. So today was spent accompanying my parents on a electronics shopping trip. My main observation: If you want a TV today, you better want it in silver color. Maybe one TV set in 50 was in another color than silver, and then it was a flat screen one that my parents had absolutely no interest in. What can I say, my parents are conservative when it comes to modernities like this. And who am I to argue with them on that point? They really don't feel the need for anything more advanced, so why waste money on it? As long it works and they are happy, it's a good choice. I tried my best not to influence them in their choice, and for once I think I succeeded in that. It's always a hard task though, fulfilling the role to be helpful son providing technical advise while not interfering in what's essentially to be theirpurchase, not mine.

One negative thing with the cheap-but-proven-TV-technology exist though. There are nicer things to do on days with 30 degrees C than moving a 40 kg TV set out of the house to the recycling center, and then moving another 40-something kg TV from the store to the house. (OK, so from the store to the car, and from the car to the house, to be exact. But still. It's enough to realize that you forgot one of the strongest arguments in favor of flat screens.)

Oh, how I just love my computer. Yes, I know Firefox has trouble viewing pdf files now and then, but most of the time that only results in Firefox crashing. Which it did this time too. But, since it crashed, the dear Windows XP decided to make a crash report, which apparently didn't work all that well.

The crash report process randomly decided that it needed all 100% of my CPU power for the task, which meant a complete standstill. And a chain reaction of crashes when all the other programs I were running suddenly found that they couldn't work or even shut down properly, since the pc was fully occupied with running the crash report. Not to mention that Windows happily thought that each new program crash needed its own, malfunctioning crash report program, sucking even more processing power...

Apparently Windows thinks that its crash dump processes are MUCH more important than my web construction programs and Word sessions and that my differing opinion on the matter doesn't really count.

Spent yesterday finally fetching the replacement for my old monitor, which stopped working in December, at the local "post office". A flat monitor isn't all that heavy, but after carrying a big box with stupid side handles a km or two on snowy roads, at least my muscles start to protest a little (on a side note I really must start working out more, but in this particular case it's probably more the static, I-must-not-loose-the-grip than actual lack of strength that makes my muscles start cramping).

Anyway, I'm now the happy owner of a brand new, very flat, big, and - at least this far - a very nice little Eizo monitor. ^___^ And soon I hope I'll stop feeling like I'm drowning in all the usable space, both onscreen and on my computer table.

Spending time looking for new wallpapers can be fun, by the way. (I had to, since suddenly none of the wallpapers on disk had the right proportions...) So for the time being, my desktop have a new look.

( Screenie here )

Of course, with my newfound knowledge that a flat screen can look this good, my ancient laptop suddenly feels in an even greater need of a successor. But that will have to wait until May or June at earliest. ^_~