by Matt | Aug 25, 2002 | Imported Entry
Well, last nights “game night” went well. Chip and I played CS almost exclusively.
CS is one of those games were you’ll have a hot streak for an hour or so and then have an extremely cold streak for an equal amount of time. It can be quite fustrating. The keys to sucess usually involve a heafty dose of caffine and occasional breaks so you don’t get burnt out. This may seems a tad involved for something that’s “just a game” but I don’t care. It’s a darn good game and I take my video gaming skills rather seriously. It’s no fun losing and when you’re good enough to win you often have more fun that way. Anyway, it was fun. It’s a shame we couldn’t pick up Jason but it was simply too far to Chelmsford to get him. It was raining and windy and Chelmsford is about an hour away normally. So, the weather wasn’t really the kind we felt safe driving in, especially to someplace we didn’t really know. Next week we’ll make some definite plans and make sure we get him up here.
Today we have a cookout/birthday party for my grandmother. We had all snuck around and gotten a family portrait done and printed up for her and she really seemed to enjoy it. Having my tooth problem I had to stick to hotdogs and potato salad so I missed out on what I’m told were “quite tasty burgers.” Wait, I haven’t mentioned my dental problem have I? Ah, well, it seems that one of my wisdom teeth, in it’s infinite “wisdom”, has decided to make this weekend “come out and greet the world” weekend. The whole right side of my face is swollen extremely large and my teeth/gums aren’t exactly feeling 100%. Actually, it’s possibly the most painful experience of my life. Seriously. Now I know why teething babies cry so much. Allegedly tomorrow my Mom is making an emergency appointment with the dentist to have it (or both of them) removed.
Now, I’m the type of person who has a deep and unnatural hatred for the dentist. All my life, everytime I go to the dentist it’s been nothing but extreme plain and discomfort. So, in turn, I hate it. Add to this my also deep and unnatural fear of anethesia. It really really frightens me. Being put “to sleep” by something I don’t have complete and total control over really scares the crap out of me. What if the dentist screws up? What if I don’t wake up? What if something goes wrong and I don’t know it? All these thing run through my head when I think about “going under.” However, in light of the extreme pain I’m in and the fact that I CAN’T CHEW, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get this over with. I can put my fears aside if it means I’ll be pain free in a few days. It also means that the probable cause of my headaches might go away, a possibility that intrests me as well. So, in this case, the good outweighs to bad and I’ll probably bite the bullet and simply get it over with. But I still won’t like it. Or even the concept of it. I’m just not thinking about it at the moment… or at least trying not to.
Thats about all thats going on with me. Pain, discomfort and a family BBQ, what a great combonation.
by Matt | Aug 21, 2002 | Imported Entry
The weirdest computer shit keeps happening. For example, tonight while I’m playing Battlefield 1942, a random windows error box pops up saying something along the lines of “Want hot sexy babes? Press YES.” Now, I find this a tad alarming. My first thought was “virus” which was quickly followed by “backdoor.” For those that don’t know a “backdoor virus” is one in which serious damage is often not done, but the perpetrator gains control of the infected system and can then do nasty things. So, I’m puzzled for a minute or two in which time I run Norton AntiVirus. It comes up clean. I don’t entirely trust my system at this point and have to mention that I really never have in the past. I don’t like the way XP deals with certain things, especially registry entries. Last month I tried uninstalling Style XP but to my surprise when I tried reinstalling it it surprisingly found “a previously installed version.” Now, I’m no rocket scientist, but when I uninstall something, and then run RegClean, and then AntiVirus… IT SHOULD BE GONE! But no… hidden deep within the system files, a copy remains. So, if I wasn’t able to rid my computer of a legit program, what chance do I have of getting rid of one that’s obviously trying to hide? At this point I started thinking about things I’ve downloaded in the past few days. All of them seem on the up and up: a Microsoft pacth for GTA 3, new Nvidia drivers and the Battlefield 1942 demo. That’s it. I somehow doubt one of them is to blame. Which means that it must have been here for a little while. I scan and scan for virii and come up empty. At this point I start thinking that maybe Norton AntiVirus is infected or being told not to look in certain places… so I download McAffee AV (the free trial version) but that yields nothing. So, I either have a random backdoor virus, one of the guys is playing a trick with BackOrifice or I’m going insain and seeing things. If I find out it’s one of the guys, I will physically harm you. I kid you not. But, I don’t think they’d do that so I’m assuming that’s not case. At this point I’m debating whether to wipe the harddrive and start over clean. I’d just need to back up email and documents. It’s unfortunate that is has to come to that since I’ve gotten the system working and acting just the way I like it. We’ll see what happens.
by Matt | Aug 20, 2002 | Imported Entry
Well, after going a little OSX crazy yesterday I started looking for ways to get my system as close to a Mac as possible. With the combo of Style XP and Desktop X, I think I’ve gotten pretty close. I’ll put a few links at the bottom. Anyways, I’m using the Jaguar (Mac OS X 10.2) DockBar Theme from DBarras for Desktop X and the Aqua Colorized Windows Theme for Style XP. After that I looked for some Mac icons and found a set here that contains a whole bunch of actual converted icons. I also installed their “finder bar” but didn’t like it much. So, all that, plus a custom made desktop by yours truely, has resulted in this:
screenshot 1
screenshot 2
screenshot 3
screenshot 4
Whatcha think?
by Matt | Aug 19, 2002 | Imported Entry
I want it. Bad. OSX that is. Every time I see pictures of the dock bar or use it at school it makes me want to throw this stupid Windows box out the window and buy a TiBook. But, can’t we all just get along? What if… and this is a big if… what if we could get a dock-like app launcher for Windows? That would be nice right? There’s hundred and millions of shell replacements for Windows because people are tired of the bloated crapware that is Explorer. Why not one that acts like OSX? Wait, even better, you don’t need a full shell-replacement, just an actual usable applications launcher. There’s a few of those around right? Object Bar from the guys that made Windows Blinds is one that I can think of off the top of my head. I know for a fact there bunches of taskbar-ish replacements. How about something in between. An taskbar/quicklaunch bar that looks like the OSX dock. It shouldn’t be that hard. Well, a couple of kids over in the Neowin forums gave it a shot in HTML. Check this out. At the moment its just HTML but if you save it locally and turn Windows Active Desktop on it could work rather well. Now, personally, I think Active Desktop is a HUGE waste of system resources so for me this just isn’t a solution. The developer is apparently trying to do a little coding and trying to make a working application version of it. I can’t wait for that. That, coupled with my OSX Logon, Boot Screen, XP Theme and icon packs should make this little PC look very Mac-ish. And unless $3000 falls into my lap, thats the closest I’m getting to a new laptop anytime soon. So, can you tell I’m a little excited about the basic concept of this?
by Matt | Aug 19, 2002 | Imported Entry
Well, the new copy of XP is installed. I feel rather guilty having only done an upgrade and not going all out with a clean install. It’ll probably come back to bite me in the ass later. You know, two days before a history paper is due and the system starts locking up, that sort of thing. Regardless, it’s installed.
I can’t get to Windows Update though. I remember hearing something about the site possibly being down as they prepare to release Service Pack 1 but I didn’t realize it was actually going to happen. I hope it’s not something with my machine. Can anyone else get to it?
Randomly: Does anyone else ever get a craving for a nice juicy steak? It’s probably just me but I could really really go for a nice NY Strip covered in A1. I haven’t had real red meat in a while. Either that or I’m just hungry.
Later.
by Matt | Aug 19, 2002 | Imported Entry
Well, yesterday I got to hang out with Josh for the evening. I hadn’t seen him in a very long time so it was good to catch up. He’s been having a lot of fun out west and has returned a more “realistic” version of himself. It’s funny how much we’re still alike even after not getting to hang out for three years. Anyway, we went over to Boston Billards to shoot some pool and catch up in general. It was fun. On the way home Josh gave me a street cone. I won’t mention how we actually got the street cone. He also hooked me up with a copy of Windows XP Pro for $30. I can’t fathom such a deep discount for employees. I’m not saying its bad, it’s certainly good for the employees and their families. Kinda sad how normal cutomers get a 1000% mark-up though. After pool we went back to Josh’s house and played XBox for a little while. It was fun.
Anyway. I think I’m going to wipe the drive later tonight and do a clean install with the new copy of XP. I also got my GearGrip Pro last night. Very cool. For those that don’t know, it’s a big safety harness/carrying strap for your computer. Now I can just pick this ol’ giant tower up and carry it around rather than grabbing it with both hands and struggling to get to my car. Should come in very handy for Game Night.
After a night of catching up and hanging out I had to get up around 8:30 today and drive my brother to Southboro (outside of Boston) to meet up with him friend. He of course couldn’t drive himself. Something out not wanting to leave his van there or using to much gas or something stupid. That took up most of my morning. Anyway, I’m off to play with my ‘puter. Later.
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