Technology

Even though I had tried to reload the driver from device manager, apparently I needed to completely reload the software using Creative’s installation file. I fucking hate soundblasters software and drivers. I have been using their cards for 15 years or so and I like them, but they are always behind the times with drivers, and their software blows chunks.

Listening to the best of the Pixies right now. Much better working environment. I don’t know what the hell I was doing (probably working) while they were still around, but this kicks ass.

Update – Apparently the sound issue is something in Windows. Fucked if I know what. I tried different speakers as well as headphones, in both soundcards. Tried disabling one of the soundcards. Reinstalled drivers. Did a system restore. Know I am starting to get pissed off and may kick it a few times to see if that will work. I’ve gotta have my itunes. I know I can listen to music on the TV system, but it’s not the same, particularly if Holder or one of the wall crawlers want to watch TV.

I am pretty much a happy camper today. Stardock released Windowblinds for Vista yesterday (at least the beta version). I have missed being able to skin my windows under Vista. I’ve used this program since 1999 or so, and it kicks ass. I also found a transparent console called (amazingly enough) Console. I used to use an eterm like program called eConsole, but development on it stopped several years ago and it doesn’t run properly under Windows Vista. The first time I loaded up a skin it crashed explorer, but after a reboot I haven’t had a single problem since. There are literally hundreds of skins available for free at Wincustomize, although Windowblinds itself is shareware. Well worth the price.

The only thing that I have found that is a pain in the ass with this “new” pc is that my sound quit working mysteriously yesterday. I am getting ready to check it out with a different pair of speakers, as it won’t work on the built-in sound on my MB or my sound card. I also tried with headphones and couldn’t get that to work either. Piece of shit.

Here’s a screenshot of my current desktop.

Update – Apparently the sound issue is something in Windows. Fucked if I know what. I tried different speakers as well as headphones, in both soundcards. Tried disabling one of the soundcards. Reinstalled drivers. Did a system restore. Know I am starting to get pissed off and may kick it a few times to see if that will work. I’ve gotta have my itunes. I know I can listen to music on the TV system, but it’s not the same, particularly if Holder or one of the wall crawlers want to watch TV.

Technorati : Stardock, Vista, Windowblinds
Flickr : Desktops

Once again, I have a computer up and running. I ended up being able to get one of my media PCs running again, it just had a couple of bad sticks om RAM in it, so now I have a PC again, and it’s faster than the one I was using. Sweet. Does that mean I will post more? Probably not.

Damn, I have hardly posted at all this week. Another long one. I just got home a few minutes ago. Early enough to kiss the girls good night, but that’s about it. I will have to take a much needed shower and hit the sack soon. 4:30 AM comes too damn early.

The kids got their grades today. They both did very well, That is a very good thing. Chris got at least all Bs. Great. Except the part where he gets his computer back. Damn. Since Anna’s milk went in the laptop, I am computer-less. I guess it could be worse, I could be dick-less. And a zombie. That would definitely be worse.

As much as I love home automation, and the homemade PVR and such, I may be retiring the fucker and putting it back under my desk for awhile, since it used to be my PC anyway. Damn, just can’t decide.

Earlier I was searching myspace for “Georgia Bloggers”. Pretty fucking useless search there. That’s how I came across the aforementioned site.

Technorati : Internet, Myspace

I’ve gotta get me one of these things for the hood of my car.

Technorati : weapons

…are fixed. I sent emails to several different contacts at Charter (not tech support) and apparently it was fixed today. It was a real pain in the ass having to log in to AOL first and then surf through their software.

Technorati : Internet

Well, after getting treated like a fucking dumbass tonight, I have sent an email to several different people at Charter. I can’t get here to post to my blog, or even access ANYTHING on my sight, unless I log on to AOL via their software first (they use their own DNS servers). I didn’t look very hard tonight, but if I don’t receive an answer by tommorow morning, or the problem is not resolved, I am sure that I can find some of their VP’s email addresses on their investor relations page. Here’s the email for those technically inclined. Perhaps the issue really is on my end, then I need to have been treated like a dumbass, and an asshole to boot, but I just don’t think so.

I am hoping that you can forward this to the appropriate department. I attempted to use your web chat for my issue and was told that the tech support options were limited, so I needed to call tech support and get my matter escalated. I did so, and went through various troubleshooting that I had already done, with the same results. I ended up getting disconnected, and I don’t know if it was on my end, or yours. I do know that before I will spend another 40 minutes on hold so that I can go through the same troubleshooting yet again, I will call someone else and set up service through them.

The matter pertains to my not being able to access a couple of particular websites.The sites in particular are www.shadowscope.com (my web site), and www.livingdot.com (my web provider). I cannot reach them via ip address either, 72.34.32.113

When I try to ping my website I get:

Pinging shadowscope.com [72.34.32.113] with 32 bytes of

Reply from 63.223.8.77: TTL expired in transit.
Reply from 63.223.8.77: TTL expired in transit.
Reply from 63.223.8.77: TTL expired in transit.
Reply from 63.223.8.77: TTL expired in transit.

Ping statistics for 72.34.32.113:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

63.223.8.77 looks like it might be a router at wvfiber.net, the full name resolves to atl-c00.pos-1-16-1.OC48-atl-nshl3-pos2.wvfiber.net

When I try a traceroute to any of the above I get:

1 1 ms <1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 9 ms 8 ms 9 ms 10.135.48.1
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.

It finally gets to the default 30 hops and times out on all of them.

Using a proxy (America Online) I am able to log on to their service and hit the sites with no problems whatsoever, since they use their own DNS servers.

WV Fiber is based out of Atlanta, so it is a problem either on one of their routers, or your DNS servers, as far as I can tell.

I would appreciate it if this matter would be looked into in a timely manner, I particularly hate having to spend 40 minutes to an hour of my time on hold just so that I can be treated as if I am a dumbass. I do understand that the techs have to do some troubleshooting, as I worked in tech support for an ISP several years ago, but with all of the automated questioning that we have to go through before we are actually allowed to speak with one of your representatives, you would think that there would be a couple that would at least give them a slight hint as to our level of computer expertise.

Thak you for your help,

Richard Miles