Lots of Computer Weirdness

Lots of stuff has been going on with my desktop computer over the last week. To make a long story short, I would up reformatting the drive, reinstalling XP, and reinstalling all my applications. Lots of work, but the thing’s mostly better now. I still can’t run chkdsk/f or Norton Disk Doctor without hosing things up, but I guess I can deal with that for a while.

Red Hat 8

Hey. I’m posting this from Red Hat 8. Okay, not a real big deal, but I installed it, and it works. And it seems to support most of my hardware. I haven’t tried everything, but the obvious stuff works — mouse, videocard, sound card, etc… Thus far, the only thing useful I’ve done is installed MP3 support and downloaded a Grey Eye Glances song from EMusic.

bugs and dust balls

Bugs and Dust Balls: A ‘Clean’ Installation

Mildly amusing article at the New York Times, describing a typical person’s experience performing some simple upgrades on her PC. I got a big laugh comparing her experience with my own recent upgrades. I replaced almost every part in my PC, and I think I had less trouble than she did, and she was just trying to upgrade to Windows XP and add some RAM. (Also, I didn’t have to make a single tech support call. She must have made twenty.) I guess there’s some advantage to being a total geek after all. Also interesting to see the way she uses jargon. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone use the phrase “debugging the hard drive” before.

LCD monitors

Here are some links related to LCD monitors:

I have to admit that I’m still trying to decide if I like mine or not. Certain things look great on it, but some things are a little hard on the ol’ eyes, compared to the CRT. (It might just be that I’ve got the thing set too bright.)