Curse Diary

The Law of Equivalent Exchange

icelava — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 02:35:03 GMT

In Fullmetal Alchemist, the First Law of alchemy is that of Equivalent Exchange. It states that for something that is to be obtained, something else of equivalent value has to be given. This roughly keeps the balance of material existing in the world.

So I have been operating dual monitors for a rather long time now. During that span of time, I even upgraded the pair to a higher dot-pitch model. I can say - without a doubt - it is an essential setup for any serious software developer. But as good as two monitors was, I had long been thinking of something even better - the coveted tri-monitor configuration. But until recently, such setups required twin video cards. And yes indeed, in recent times ATI with their Eyefinity range of video cards released some models sporting two DVI ports + one DisplayPort port.

The time is now. I took the plunge and added a Dell Ultrasharp U2410 24" DisplayPort monitor into the middle. I have gained the third eye.

And so life is good thereafter, right? That was what I thought. I was happy for a good two weeks of triple the productivity, or triple the distraction, depending on how one views it. I had encountered some odd problems with the new DisplayPort monitor mysteriously getting disabling in Windows display settings after RDCing to it from outside, but i brushed that off as i found a usable workaround (of typing in the blind to logon). The real problem came yesterday when one of the old monitor pair just lost video output. The monitor did not complain of "no DVI signal"; it was still rightfully powered on and my mouse can "disappear" into its void space. I unplugged the DVI cable and reattached it, and all was good (albeit some Windows display realignment). This morning it totally fizzled, giving out a screechy noise each time it got reattached to display a darkened subdued image but blowing the screen into darkness again.

But is it the monitor or the video card? Wait, did I mention I'm pressed for time to learn and prepare training materials? MUST IT HAPPEN NOW? Of course it does. Things must always break when one is trying to focus on more important issues, so that, you know, we can deliberately procrastinate. Anyway so I swapped DVI ports between the twin monitors in order to confirm: the monitor is the cranky device. At this point, the old DVI had been exchanged for a spanking DisplayPort. Ok, so they are not of equal value. But I am stuck to two eyes again.

Bleah.

wake up, sleepy head

icelava — Fri, 07 May 2010 03:38:41 GMT

It would seem that with a new motherboard setup this year, i would finally be able to carry out my energy-saving plan by putting my desktop on Standby/Sleep when i'm done for the night. For most in this first quarter of the year, that did work out. Although sometimes my keyboard or mouse would oddly go missing and undetected no more how many times I replug them. The only way to control the desktop is to RDC to it from my laptop and get it to reboot.

What a fine way to save energy.

However, the one to drop the axe on the head was my recent purchase for more storage, coming in the form of an external eSATA disk. For some reason, waking the computer from Sleep would result in flaky responsiveness from this disk.

Log Name:      System
Source:        atapi
Date:          7/5/2010 11:25:10
Event ID:      11
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      diablo
Description:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort0.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
    <Provider Name="atapi" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="49156">11</EventID>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2010-05-07T03:25:10.910Z" />
    <EventRecordID>249454</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>diablo</Computer>
    <Security />
</System>
<EventData>
    <Data>\Device\Ide\IdePort0</Data>
    <Binary>0000100001000000000000000B0004C004000000850100C00000000000000000000000000000000000000000010000000000000005100000</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>

Yes, looks like activists against climate change can come knocking on my door soon.

Punched in the eyes

icelava — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:52:38 GMT

Hi, I am Aaron.

(Hello Aaron)

I am a repeated victim of dismal hardware failure, too. I cannot get enough of it. Remember the desktop workstation DIABLO with the upgraded video card to provide two DVI outputs? I thought I was reaching a state of equilibrium with its setup and could finally just use it in peace. Heck i could even stand-by and hibernate it now.

*reaches for handkerchief*

And so last night I once again kicked in the new habit of pushing the casing power button before i went to sleep. Up the next day, I press the button again it snap it out of hibernate. Except, this time round it does not resume operations. The computer continues to remain in carbon freeze. On another power cycle attempt, it gave the dreaded BIOS beep tones to communicate hardware failure of some sort - one long beep, three short beeps - no video output.

Welcome the New Year. Along with all its New Problems!

Looking through Internet suggestions, conflicting reports about Award BIOS state that it is either RAM or video card problem. I tried resitting the RAM modules, card-shuffling all four of them, to no avail. I put in an existing pair of old DDR2-667 modules that I haven't sold yet. Still the same beeps. In plugging in the video card from my gaming PC, the beep code still persists. What is wrong? Did I mention that IKEA is scheduled to deliver and assemble some furniture in the afternoon?

Fighting against time, I eventually did the illogical - reset the BIOS CMOS. I did in on a hunch, thinking something about the BIOS setting was not all well with the video card. Lo and behold, the computer was able to boot up thereafter. But one gotcha here. I could only make use of the onboard GPU chipset; the PCI-Express video card was no longer accessible and would not output any signal. Despite it being set as the primary display adapter. After further attempts of troubleshooting, I had to give up and conclude the PCI-E slot of the motherboard has toasted permanently.

For a short period of time, I was just stuck with one monitor. As a computing professional who has grown so accustomed to twin-monitor setups, did I ever mention that using only one monitor is like literally being blinded in one eye? It's like staring into a black zone on one side, not being able to see (use) that desktop area. It is truly frightening. Well, since the onboard GPU has both a DVI port and DB-15 port, I had to revert one monitor back to DB-15 display quality in order to "open both eyes". Yucky, but had to make do with what's available. That is, until i was reminded that this abysmal chipset cannot even let me properly logout, let alone reboot.

It would seem like as I begin this year in a new home, I am being forced to transition to a new hardware setup too. Might as well.

Facing the elements require epic armour

icelava — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:36:06 GMT

Note to self

When journeying into harsh environments of nature, where dust, dirt, pollens, web, leaf flakes, wandering viral spores, do not bring a camera body that does not have weather sealing.
When dripping a lot of sweat, keep camera by the side of body instead of hanging off neck directly in front.
When undergoing strenuous vegetation navigation and topography, keep the camera's battery compartment door away from sweaty body. In other words, don't hang it on body; keep it in the bag.
When busy bashing roots and branches all around, won't get a lot of chance to take photos anyway. Will get a lot of chance for undesirable materials to land on equipment instead.
If want to be so daring, use a makeshift plastic cover bag to protect the camera to save the pain.

Or, just buy a camera body with tough environmental and weather sealing.

XPS = Xtreme Painful Service

icelava — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:20:45 GMT

When I purchased the low-end Dell Inspiron 1501 in the mid of 2007, my intention was to make it my mobile platform for at least two years. For the pricing back then, it was a steal, despite sporting only average hardware. I tried to increase its 733tn3$$ by pasting a Razer sticker, but it failed to boost the speed up any components. Regardless, its computing prowess far exceeded my company's laptop by leaps and bounds, serving me well for the next two projects while I was yet to be assigned a newer laptop to actually get work done at a decent rate.

However, fate has it that my sister would drown her desktop PC with substance abuse and left it an inexplicably cranky state. What is it with laymen and their computers? Do they regularly drive their cars off the road and into barriers and trees too? Whichever case, there had to be a succession plan. My sister had her crucial needs, like transferring ripped music into her iPod and downloading spyware arcade games. And I wasn't particularly interested in maintaining that old machine anymore, so I gave up the Inspiron 1501 for her sake, a year ahead of my "release" schedule. An alternative for myself was sought in the form of the Red XPS M1530. Now this is one sexy mother that did not require a Razer add-on to tell all others around me that I pwnz j00z.

Even though i was initially reluctant with the decision, I was quick to warm to the replacement laptop upon getting acquainted with its features and finish. It is like marrying a woman whom you had some small doubts, and delightfully finding her to be a capable and wonderful person later. Add to that she's incredibly erotic. How much better can that get?

This was really one Red hot machinery; its polish is truly the most beautiful of all Dell designs I had witnessed to date back then. For some reason, I became a whole lot more attractive and approachable to women when I was holding a laptop in hand. "check out that guy with the red Dell XPS - I saw him first." Just about everything on it oozes "sleek" and "cool" and told my colleagues they sucked with their hideous monstrosities aka corporate laptops.

Unlike my DIY desktops, my experience with past Dell laptops had largely been trouble-free. The XPS M1530 too gave me a quite a superb experience, except for one minor problem - occasionally while typing into a text box widget, the text cursor would jump to wherever the mouse pointer was positioned. Even disabling the touchpad when a mouse is plugged in did not seem to help. It came to the point that over a year of usage I finally accumulated enough annoyance to raise an issue with Dell. They were quick to state they needed to replace the touchpad.

It would seem that this was a rather common problem, since no other diagnostic effort was put forward. On the day of surgery, a technician came and showed that the replacement part was actually the entire front palm plate - the touchpad and fingerprint reader were attached to it. Replacing the touchpad meant replacing the plam plate including a new fingerprint reader.

The delicate operation was a long tedious task as I witnessed the technician dismantled my beauty to pieces to replace the top palm rest. What laid beneath this pretty exterior was actually a highly convulted design of intersecting cabling that necessitated detaching so many unrelated parts just to reach another. It was really beyond my belief that Dell engineers would design such physical tunneling that made maintenance such an extraordinary pain. Either they are trying to make it difficult for competitors to inspect the internals, or they thoroughly hate their service technician colleagues.

And such was complexity that by the time I got the laptop back assembled, the fingerprint reader was not working. To be more specific, it could not be detected by the OS.

So the convenience authentication feature that I used so often had been knocked off. The technician confused, ripped it apart again and tried my old palm plate and reader, and that worked. Suspecting the new fingerprint reader to be defective, he swapped it with my old unit, but then it failed detection again once screwed back all together. It only worked when held dangling off a detached palm plate and keyboard.

WTF.

The technician made an arranagement with Dell backend support and scheduled another date to bring another replacement palm plate. Meantime, I brought home my partially injured laptop and found that it would repeatedly detect the fingerprint reader and lose it. During the instances when the reader was usable, somehow the electrical flow was so strong it super-heated the device that it scorched my finger on swiping it. Wow. Now I understand the dangers and health hazards of my job.

I was subsequently visited by the technicians two more times, in effort to get the reader operating properly like before. All which failed even when the entire motherboard was replaced. The last straw was to send my laptop to the service lab to give them time to thoroughly inspect and diagnose the problem. The concluding report was the reader continued its mayhem and burnt the fingers of the service staff similarly in boiling hatred for having its intimate insides touched by so many people. It was irrepairable, and a new laptop was to be exchanged.

All those weeks of servicing and troubleshooting for what was to be a minor and simple problem. Turned into a nightmare of technical difficulties that left me unable to properly work on the laptop. Now would you ever want to design a laptop's internal wiring to be as convulted? I think it unwise to do so.

Tooth Age technology

icelava — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:51:06 GMT

This story actually spans a long time. Like, ever since Bluetooth technology became available for widespread consumerism. I never understood what's with all this rage over Bluetooth. My past experiences nearly every bluetooth device just about proved that it is an extremely unreliable wireless technology; connectivity and pairing for devices within bitch-slapping range of each other can be so incredibly difficult to achieve. What does it take to maintain a stable connection at all? So to me, Bluetooth is a tool best avoided unless absolutely mandatory.

And so indeed, did that problem faced me straight on.

Last year I quickly bought the Nokia XpressMusic 5310 after being holed up in Senoko power station for several months without being allowed to utilise fancy schnazzy phones in that secured area. They did not allow camera phones there, and frankly, is that a decent phone that does not sport a camera these days? Even when the camera sensor and lens totally suck? But regardless, I bought the phone because it provided the musical features to rival my ailing iMobile 310. Any phone unable to play mp3 ring and message tones are plain rubbish now.

On top of that, I immediately discarded the poorly-designed earphone headset provided by Nokia. True musical experience and otolaryngo comfort starts with circumaural headphones. None of that pathetic plug-in designs. Thus my acquisition of the Sennheiser eh250; not too big for mobility, kicking enough bass from the phone (traditionally, the 2xx series of headphones in Sennheiser's line have always provided the most bass). I became a happy person with song and dance in my travels; liberated from the noise of the world.

Until the phone rings. And I pick up the phone like a walkie-talkie or a radio mic unit. Over.

I had been tolerating this setup for the past year, since popular Bluetooth solutions for hands-free communication are one-sided-jab-into-ear models. That is unacceptable; not only do I require stereo for my music, I need it to be my headphones. If it is not circumaural, it will not do. Then came my colleague to the "rescue". Himself a believer in quality sound for music playback, his choice setup is a Bose on-ear that dangles an i-Tech Clip D-Radio. After convincing me the benefits of Bluetooth v2 and A2DP, I went about purchasing the lesser i-Tech Clip Radio model, since I don't need the on-device LED panel.

Initially, I thought I had met a joyous solution that did not require me to sing karaoke into my phone when I am listening to music. But a couple days of use soon revealed a massive problem - the Bluetooth signal would frequently break (not always but often enough); not because I was more than ten metres away from the phone; not because I was behind a thick shielding of a lead wall; but merely when i have my phone in my pocket and the Clip Radio hanging on my collar.

Yup, standing or walking upright in regular posture. Poor reception results. Maybe Bluetooth has designed with the Homo Habilis generation in mind, I don't know.

I speculated wildly with my colleague what could possibly be the problem. Whether my phone has poor transmission, or the material of my pants, even desperate enough to suggest if it could have been the type of briefs that I wear.

In an exchange test with my colleague's model for a day, however, it quickly exposed the fact that my phone is good enough. His unit works perfectly fine. And he reported that his music experience was totally soured by breakages when he used my unit. I guess I can return to wearing briefs again. Which made me glad since I was not used to having such "freedom" downstairs.

So it seems my voodoo with Bluetooth technology continues. Until I can get a proper working unit from customer service.

High-speed disks, with high-speed failures!

icelava — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:39:31 GMT

One of the features boasted about Windows Vista is how visually responsive it remains despite being placed under load by simultaneous programs. Well, in the past month I have been battling with a Windows Vista that would occasionally freeze up, somethings even to the point of sticking the mouse pointer in its place. It would take around a minute for Windows to snap out of its trance with the spiritual dimension, of which time I have learnt to pick up short smoking breaks and socialising with neighbours in the yellow box. For all the work Microsoft software engineers have put into the operating system, which I know is extremely complex and difficult, it looks like Windows Vista is still susceptible to one uncontrollable factor - faulty hardware.

What was the problem? One look at the System event log reveals a rather large hint:

Log Name:      System
Source:        nvstor64
Date:          14/11/2008 18:02:30
Event ID:      5
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      diablo
Description:
A parity error was detected on \Device\RaidPort0.

Add the fact that restarting the system may yield a failure to properly start the device, issuing a boot-time black screen of death complaining storport.sys is corrupt (error code 0xc00000e9).

I tried to ignore the problem, and endured it, since I had other important matters to attend to, like clearing up the backlog of anime series accumulating in my disk drives. But yesterday, the occurence grew so frequent I could barely make use of this computer a few minutes at a time before a relapse came back. What exactly was the problem? At the point of time, I was not sure it was truly something wrong with my hard disk as the system events do not really indicate disk-related errors according to my past experience with disk failures and errors with other situations. I was not even using a RAID configuration on this computer, so why would "RaidPort0" come into the picture?

In searching around the Internet, it appears few people face similar problems. I followed some suggestions like changing the SATA cable, installing the latest nVidia nForce 4 series drivers, and swapping from SATA port 1 to port 4. The end result was the parity error then got detected on \Device\RaidPort1. Great progress!

One thing certain is the Western Digital Raptor WD74 disk is causing all these pain. This expensive 10,000rpm model I specifically selected to provide my system with speedy spins is ironically weighing me flat on my face with performance lockdowns. So not only does it spin fast, its time-to-failure is pretty fast too. One thing to be glad of is, Western Digital offers five-year one-to-one warranty; with dropping hardware prices and quality, I am at least appreciative that hard disks manufacturers acknowledge that mechanical moving parts wear down faster than plain electronics circuitry.

Yay, so I get to replace the faulty part one for one. No big deal, correct? Except that hard disks carry the personalities of systems. Lose the data, lose the system. A brand new blank disk does not return me to status quo; it just lands me with permanent amnesia. But hey, I am a high tech guy, am I not? Surely, I have some backup strategy to cover disaster possibilities. Yes indeed! I use Acronis True Image products to make complete disk backups for my systems. Only thing is, the scheduled backup task for this system is the 16th of every month - kicking in automatically yesterday - and that attempt failed miserably thanks to the Raptor disk's growing tumour. It essentially messed up the backup image I could have used as the base. Looks like I need to revert back to the practice of maintaining two alternating backup images. Oh, there's also the question of "who" is playing substitute while the main disk is sent to the bench for first aid? Looks like I have to make my fifth disk purchase of the year, if I am to keep it running (for a number of reasons I cannot effectively use another system as the nerve centre for my home). The consolation I get is when I get the Raptor back and have it recloned, this new disk can be slotted into my just-commissioned Dell PowerEdge.

As I write this, I am already operating the system on the new disk, thanks to Acronis True Image miraculously completing a full-disk backup in the afternoon (hurtling through the disk errors), providing me with an image to restore. Now is a matter of seeing how quick Achieva, the local Western Digital distributor, can bring about a replacement.

Happy ending? Did I mention yet another weekend burnt on matters that were not part of my plans?

Running in a loop

icelava — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 04:55:37 GMT

Following the death of my father I thought it was time to look back ahead, and re-align myself with the rhythm and joys of life. My gaming PC is in need of being powered on; time to put this entertainment hardware to good use before it becomes obsolete.

Or maybe, it already is? Totally?

Given my current job and developer community circumstances, I doubt I have the time to dive into World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion. This is just too much of a real-time second-job style of gaming. I needed to return to quick-fix gaming; stuff I can hit and run in short stabs. So I picked up Mirror's Edge instead, hoping to return to my "first love" genre of first-person shooters. Except, this game is not about shooting. It is all about running (away from enemies) and leaping around the roof tops of skyscrapers in a serene and clean city. You have to watch it to get a feel.

Let's see how my machine handles this game.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date:  28/02/2009
Time:  01:50:29
User:  N/A
Computer: MEPHISTO
Description:
Faulting application mirrorsedge.exe, version 1.0.1.0, faulting module mirrorsedge.exe, version 1.0.1.0, fault address 0x00d188bb.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 6c707041 74616369 206e6f69 6c696146
0010: 20657275 72696d20 73726f72 65676465
0020: 6578652e 302e3120 302e312e 206e6920
0030: 7272696d 6573726f 2e656764 20657865
0040: 2e302e31 20302e31 6f207461 65736666
0050: 30302074 38383164 0a0d6262

Mmmm, crashes frequently. To the point I couldn't get a single decent run the previous night, and went to bed. After kicking down every rubbish bin in the neighbourhood. So much for first impressions. But that turned out to due to the hard disk I installed the game into. This disk has been giving all its previous hosts stability trouble, so it was to be expected when I transferred it to this computer for "less risky" purposes. That sure made for an ultra poor gaming experience though.

So the wisened me installed the game onto the primary disk, and things improved immediately. No more I/O-induced errors. But then, exactly like a game where you defeat one opponent, another enemy appears to up the difficulty level.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: nv
Event Category: None
Event ID: 108
Date:  28/02/2009
Time:  12:09:58
User:  N/A
Computer: MEPHISTO
Description:
The driver nv4_disp for the display device \Device\Video0 got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your hardware device vendor for any driver updates.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 00000000 00460003 00000000 c004006c
0010: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
0020: 00000000 00000000

Something/someone is telling me I should not be playing games. Makes me wonder if such crashes will also happen if I decide to play with women instead. My first stop was to check back if NVIDIA has anything new to stop this. Oooh, 18 Feb 2009 drivers, let's try that!

Error Message: STOP 0x000000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER (Q293078)

You received this message because a device driver installed on your computer caused Windows to stop unexpectedly. This type of error is referred to as a "stop error." A stop error requires you to restart your computer.

Looks like Mirror's Edge is truly pushing my graphics card off the edge (pun intended). Like that freaking annoying level that you just cannot beat and have to attempt a hundred times in order to obtain that stroke of luck to get you through. And then, just before you reach the save point, you die. The pain continues with determined consistency. Make it stop. Please.

Simply. Cannot. Win.

icelava — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 09:05:46 GMT

My life with my desktop workstation has been a long-term experience of tolerance and endurance. All too similar to its predecessor, it has successfully carried on the tradition - to this day - of generating endless problems of hardware stability. Following the episode of transplanting a real man's video card into the system to solve my virtual and multi-monitor desktop woes, there was something that I had been tolerating for the past half year.

The replacement GF6800GS card also featured a DVI and VGA db15 port. The video output from the db15 signal had vertical ghosting. Any vivid vertical line, like window and widget borders, and text, would appear slightly double imaged. Reading became a headache-inducing affair on that monitor. I tried hard to place unimportant windows (which did not require much reading) and watched videos on that monitor, but could not avoid the recognition that a software developer's use of multiple monitors is different from a stock market analysis.

I do not monitor graphs and charts or blinking lights. I read and write text on email clients, IDEs, browsers, SDK help pages. It is all text.

So today I finally caved in bought a dual-DVI GF8600GT card to give my eyes the break they deserve. [Side note: my main purchase today was actually an AT-SATA power plug converter because my very first DVD writer (circa 2004) died last night and the only spare drive available was a SATA-based model. But no, I am not complaining about this drive. It was a "natural" death.] On inserting the new card I realise only the right monitor displays the boot-up visual sequence; the left monitor - which was peviously using the db15 cable - simply had no signal. I brushed the worry aside and proceeded with the installation of the drivers. Fortunately, the second time Windows booted up, the left monitor could be configured to output its display. Phew.

Until I started making additional configuration.

My left monitor was the primary monitor but with this new card, the right monitor is the default primary. After assigning the left as primary, I gave the computer another restart and observed strange behaviour. Since on startup, when Windows and the nVidia display driver are still not invovled, the boot sequence is shown on the right. When the Windows driver kicked in, the left monitor was blank despite receiving a video signal. So the black curtain has been pulled over my eyes to blind me from the truth of the logon screen.

So what? I am a keyboard commando who has gotten himself out of trouble with melodic keyboard talent. I logged into Windows blind like Stevie Wonder plays the piano. Hail me. The activity of programming blind, though, is still quite a challenge, but I am working on it.

Ok, so I am logged in, but the left monitor is still blank. After playing around with the nVidia control panel a bit and unbuckling my hip holster to communicate my intent, I managed to persuade the left monitor to give up its details. What is happening? I decided to try an experiment - swap the DVI cable inputs between the monitors - so that the left monitor is the primary monitor right from the beginning. On second reboot, the left monitor still comes out blank.

On a separate aspect, the left monitor with its new DVI input appears to display with a lot more brilliance value than the right monitor, which appears dull and grey like an old monitor when juxtaposed with the left. It is almost as though the left monitor was exploding with joyous "oh thank you!" to me for feeding it with a digital signal now, but at the same time feeling awkward with having to deal with this new language and not behaving consistently like it did with the db15 signal. And then, the right monitor which used to have superior image quality all along suddenly appears jaded and bored.

Perhaps naming this computer "DIABLO" was not a wise move after all. My next desktop shall be named "GABRIEL".

Mark of the cursed in the new millennium

icelava — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:51:10 GMT

"Those cursed for all eternity shall receive bad sectors on their hard disks" ~ Anonymous hi-tech god

Remember that new disk I bought just last weekend to stand in for my broken Raptor disk?

Log Name:      System
Source:        Ntfs
Date:          18/11/2008 12:39:00
Event ID:      55
Task Category: (2)
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      diablo
Description:
The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume vista64.

A reboot and a chkdsk fix later,

72610815 KB total disk space.
53222020 KB in 181388 files.
     82040 KB in 41258 indexes.
        32 KB in bad sectors.
    343231 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
18963492 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
18152703 total allocation units on disk.
4740873 allocation units available on disk.

Lord, why hast thou forksaken my disks?

Hardware on sale = expired milk cartons?

icelava — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:37:05 GMT

Electronic and computer hardware (well, except RAM) are always on a sloped trend when it comes to pricing. That is good for the consumer, falling prices make it more affordable to mainstream population who aren't lucky enough to win Big Sweep or Toto. This allows for more sales, and in effect, widespread adoption.

But why do prices drop? Or put it another way, how can vendors afford to lower their prices and still remain profitable? I have a theory. They often reduce QC/QA efforts, and that reduces cost. And why do I have this conclusion? How else can I explain the sheer number of faults I as a single individual experience with so many goods I purchase? Right out of the box? Since I know this to be the very real case in software development, I have little doubt hardware development differs greatly.

So the other day I decided it high time I bought a small set of speakers for my desktop workstation, after surviving more than a year on just headphones. Sure, headphones actually quite fine, until my parents start screaming at the top of their lungs for their voices to echo through the mountain valley before reaching my ears. Besides, I needed to be away from the computer at times, and it helps to continue listening to podcasts without being glued to the chair.

And that I did. I walked across a shop displaying Divoom speaker sets for sale. After testing among the smallest sizes, I decided the Titan 757 gave the optimal balance of clarity and bass. This computer is not an entertainment system so no way I was going to settle for an even larger setup; this model's sub-woofer is already approaching the size of becoming a good foot rest for me.

Shopping lesson #2: If you can test a device you purchase at the store, test it.

Always in a rush, I skipped that process and just brought the box home; it should work exactly like the display set, no?

Nope.

I immediately put the speaker through rounds of music tests. And the very first score I played revealed a flaw in the right satelite speaker. Something loose inside rattles when certain frequencies are played. Loud enough to be heard. Loud enough to be annoying. Annoying enough to spoil the listening experience. I certainly am not expecting professional-level sound quality, but I certainly do want professional-level annoyance either.

Yet another hardware device that makes a strike out on Day One of purchase. Either it is me, or it is the industry.

I'm busy; taking my hardware out for a walk

icelava — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:45:54 GMT

I'll never truly understand pet owners. Raising pets are mightily expensive endeavours, in my perspective. Not only do you need to dish out the money to feed, groom, and maintain the pet's well being, all that factors in heck of a scary amount of devoted time. And here I am finding not enough time to even sleep to keep my job in check. But, it might as well be that I have long gone over that line of insanity without even realising. Because, tell you a secret theory I have been habouring - I think computing hardware has the same kind of feelings and needs like organic pets.

So some months back at COMEX I bought an external Firewire disk, with the deliberate intention changing the "under-utilised" status of my laptop's Firewire port into "scorching hot IO performance". Time to leave USB-based external disks breathing in all that dust Firewire kicks up. See ya suckers!

Except, the sucker was me. The Firewire port is a small 4-pin port, while the disk came with a fat 6-pin connector. Huh? I soon learnt the expensive way that 6-pin connections has the additional two pins to power the external device. After a few days of trial and error (I wonder why so few people document such issues - guess Firewire ain't that popular with PC users after all), I managed to get it all working with a Firewire hub and lived happily ever after. For a month.

Just yesterday, I plug the disk back into the Firewire hub. It's "progress bar" lights, which usually blink left to right, just lit up stuck. No disk detected by Windows. What the heck is going on? If I plug the disk with only a USB cable, that works fine. I tried the hub on another laptop which sported the same 4-pin Firewire port and that did not work either. Is the hub dead? Looks like yet another trip to Sim Lim Square. I think pretty soon Sim Lim will have posters with my face on them - DO NOT SELL YOUR PRODUCTS TO THIS CHAP! THEY WILL BREAK DOWN AND HE WILL TROUBLE YOU TO HELP.

Now here's the messed up part. I got back to the shop, M Technic, and the fellows there are really nice people. They assisted me with Firewire woes previously and were willing to let me change the hub and test. Only this time, while doing a second round of tests, my own hub started working. Mmmmm, looks like these type of hardware needs me to carry them out into the open to get some fresh air and exercise, take a pee and poop, before they are ready to get back to work.

Woe to he who wants to know more about his build process

icelava — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:11:37 GMT

Want to be a more knowledgable developer by setting Visual Studio's output window to automatically focus upon activating the Build process? So that you can observe real-time details on what happens behind the scenes with MSBuild and the compilers?

Well, curses to you for wanting to know so much! You should remain an unmotivated uninterested programmer!

I am now involved with a team looking at a BizTalk implementation. I for one have not worked extensively with BizTalk before, so one of my first activities this week was to setup a new virtual server operating BizTalk Server 2006 R2. It was not as smooth as expected, given the sheer number of software that needs to be installed prior to bringing in BizTalk Server itself. Nontheless I got everything in and proceeded with tutorial lessons to get myself up to speed with BizTalk concepts.

Although slow, things were moving along fine, until last night's chapter about developing orchestrations. Visual Studio 2005 Professional, which is required to develop and deploy BizTalk projects on the server, would run (devenv.exe) the CPU 100% in an afterburner effort to increase my electricity bill. Thank God for the Kill Process feature. But, it was getting to a state that of consistency. All that because of a single orchestration object in the BizTalk project? What's up? Is it because Visual Studio was not patched up to SP1? Fine. I'll apply it.

Errors abound from the installation process. Did I mention Visual Studio 2005 SP1 is one of the most incredibly slow patches, ever? Even service packs for the operating system install faster. Each time I try to troubleshoot the SP1 process means an hour or so lost on this virtual machine. I gave up for the night since it was past 2AM. It was only late in the next morning did I remember Windows 2003 has a problem accessing insidiously large MSI/MSP files. Finally, SP1 could be delivered for Visual Studio. Finally, lunch time.

So now that I have SP1, I can continue my quest learning BizTalk. Only if I was right. I was not. Still entangled in CPU chains and vines, I desperately searched around for explanations. This (spanish?) blog entry gave a first hint as to what might possibly be the cause. This must be it, I thought, without considering that my first theory was wrong. I went through the hassle of contacting Microsoft PSS to obtain the fix, so that I can confirm that my second theory is also wrong. Nuts.

What the bloody heck? Sometimes, we should learn to resist the overwhelming branding of Google and search the MSDN forums first. Fellow ~~sufferers~~ developers reveal how the workaround can be so simple and perplexing - do not expose the Output window when building BizTalk projects. It is related to the above KB issue, but unfortunately not fixed by that patch. I am truly amazed how outputting text to a text-based window can do such outspread damage.

It is time to go home for dinner. One sweet day (and a previous evening) wasted on a Visual Studio bug. That is Rapid Application Development for you.

System BIOS, and the permutation game

icelava — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 16:15:42 GMT

One of the activities I thoroughly enjoyed when studying computation mathematics in university was to explicitly penning down all possible combinations of values given a certain bit array length. Formulas are for wussies.

Ok, I lied. But heck, that sure is more enjoyable of the chore of figuring which combination of BIOS settings work in a stable manner. And I am not talking about overclocking yet.

So the ASUS M2NPV-VM that serves as the motherboard for my latest acquisition simply refused to be energy conscious and ran around like a rampant cheetah - enabling AMD's Cool 'n' Quiet mode meant Windows Vista's Restart command would eventually freeze the machine in its tracks. This posed a problem since I frequently remote back to these home computers and should a need to restart this system arise, I'd be hard pressed to learn the kage bunshin no jutsu so one clone can constantly remain at home acting as NOC staff.

Initially I thought the Unknown Device of "ACPI\PNPB02F" in my computer's listing had some contribution to this odd behaviour; since it did sport the ACPI moniker. But Windows MVP Jane Colman informed that ID likely refers to the gameport, which accurately enough is unsupported by Windows Vista and won't have drivers for a long time to come. So what am I going to do?

Well I did disable the gameport in BIOS but the restart-freeze still persisted. Eventually, I responded to that haunting voice in my head to enable the AMD Live! option, sitting just next to the Cool 'n' Quiet entry in the BIOS' CPU configuration page. Live!!!! Surely I did not buy this machine enjoy the talents of Amy Grant or Ray Benson; do I really need to enable it? On system start up, the following new device got detected

Intel(r) Quick Resume Technology (sic)

I tilted over to check the sticker on the casing was indeed "AMD 64 Athlon X2", and could have sworn I chose to be Live! I restarted after the drivers were downloaded and checked into their hotel room, and the BIOS boot screen appeared. Perhaps some hardware developer had been consuming the wrong tonic drink while working overtime.

So thanks be to God I get to soft boot my system now. But I guess I'm not getting Live! entertainment after all.

UPDATE 15 June:
I was wrong. Today Windows Vista and the motherboard went back to their sinful habits again, and refused to reboot the machine proper. Looks like it only decided to be in a "good mood" the past week. Ah, the truly arcane intricacies of making a system reboot itself. Surely a one-in-ten chance of succeeding by any motherboard vendor.

UPDATE 16 June:
Looks like I've found the culprit - the monitors set at 75Hz refresh rate somehow makes it unsuitable for reboot. 60Hz seems to have sorted it out. Incredible. Is the video chipset trying to revolt on me for making it push out 15 more screen redraws per second?

99-hit combo

icelava — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:13:03 GMT

How is it that I frequently encounter chains of problems that arise out of the simplest of activities that stop me dead in my tracks trying to do my work? Seems like all these bugs all lie in wait to synchronise their actions and achieve a larger concerted effect to increase my suffering.

What is the latest way to disable Windows Vista? Simple - just open a text file!

Windows Vista is the future. There is no denying that. Good bye Windows XP. But it is not a bright future. Windows Explorer (WE) in Vista continues to self-testify over and over again as the single most unreliable piece of OS component that promises to wreck your productivity goals. I cannot believe just how easily WE coughs, chokes, and foams in the mouth, and possibly craps and piss into disabling seizures when trying to carry out the most fundamental of tasks. This is really absurd.

Down! Again!

icelava — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:44:46 GMT

Ever got in a boxing ring with a formidable hulking opponent? To get smashed left and right with flash jabs and heavy hooks, and brought down to your knees in an instant? As you struggle to get up, skilled repeated combos ensure you have no real chance of recovery and attaining your objectives.

I am currently posted to a project that is on the remote extremes of Singapore, a long 25Km journey from my home all the way up north. It helps tremendously that I ride a bike to cut the travel time. That is, when I have a bike to ride.

As with so many other incidents in the past, three weeks ago, the bike starting vibrating in the middle when I move at slow speed or brake to a stop. I had to send it to the workshop to tighten the exhaust pipe fairing that had apparently broken loose. Ah, nothing beats like an old man with legs and teeth all falling apart.

A few days after grabbing my patched bike, it then became wobbly. I should have been sharper about this, because it was the rear tyre that got punctured by a wild pin on the road. But due to experience with a previous puncture it did not feel and look the same, so it took me a longer stretch to confirm this by witnessing air hissing out as I try to maintain air pressure on it. Within a week, I had to send it back to the workshop for tyre inspection and patching (no way I'm gonna buy a new tyre just for a few more months).

The next week, what surprise do we have in store? The part (don't know what the official term is) that controls engine boost on full throttle has gone rusty again. That means no matter how hard I ram the throttle, the engine won't get into that turbo-charged mode for fast acceleration. This time round, I am not paying my mechanics a visit; I shall have to live with this one for now.

So, if I don't get any downtime with my bike, I am scot free right? No, I simply can't be let off so easily. In the twilight of Monday, when I should be sleeping and resting for the day's coming load of work, I wake up in searing pain all over my head. If somebody held a drill to your skull, you probably won't be able to sleep it through either. I fought with it for hours before relenting in exhaustion that the hospital was to be my first destination of the day. A jab and two or so hours in their bed hovering in and out of sleep. But at least the pain was gone.

Three days MC issued to me. Lucky! Oh yea... right. What did that headache attack do to me? These past few nights I have not been able to have a wholesome stretch of sleep at all. I keep waking up after each short dream. None of them nice, mind you. Flipping, turning, and hugging my pillow in unnatural ways is required to fall back to sleep. With eager anticipation on what the "next short story" is going to be. Oooohh I can't wait for tonight... I cannot help but feel thrilled about the levels of exhaustion I get to endure.

As it is with work, So shall it with play

icelava — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 06:57:43 GMT

When I finally got around to clearing my surplus leave enbloc at the end of last year, I decided to reward myself for the past half year of swamping through treacherous terrain a.k.a. project work. By purchasing hardcore keyboard and mouse to give me that decisive edge in gaming, I had high hopes of boosting myself into uberness and leetness, above all those pathetic gamers who use sub-par peripherals. Fear me.

This Lycosa keyboard is wicked, on first look. Switch off the lights and witness it emit its blue glow on the keys. Problem is, the keyboard may be designed for tall people who sit and stare and the keyboard at a near 90 degrees. Crouch backward in "relax" stance, and it gets hard to see the letters clearly in the blue hue. But that is not the true issue at hand here. I digress.

The one important lesson to learn here - an automatic assualt rifle that jams is less effective than a dagger.

Almost all modern peripherals are USB based. The Lycosa is no exception. In fact it comes with two USB connectors, one of which is an extension for a USB port on the keyboard itself so you can plug other devices to the keyboard instead of kneeling over your computer casing. I do not know if this is a natural phenomenon among all USB keyboards or is the Lycosa way over-engineered and complicated; this model will from time to time experience epilepsy fits and undergo power fluctuations as the LEDs blink on and off. This means any keyboard input I was engaging in gets interrupted with non-inputs as the power goes off. This means death in games. This means a wipe if I was in the middle of a fight with a party or raid.

It won't stabilise until I kneel over the casing again to replug the connector. Seems like there is no escape interfacing with casing back-panel ports. Looks like my gaming PC, which is arguably to least-troubled machine in all my years of computing, is deciding to join the rest.

Time to put to sleep

icelava — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 06:02:59 GMT

Pet owners dread these moments. Your beloved pet, which had always been loyally sticking by your side since it was a little pup or kitten or larvae. Through the years it given you cherishable moments of joy and play, as well as frustrating moments of cleaning the carpet or bedsheet. But still you showered it with love and care. Then it grows old. It falls prey to illness and disease. It becomes weak, and straggles around in pain. You do all you can to ease its suffering, but with the vet's opinions you know the most difficult yet most logical thing to do is put a bullet through its head. So that it suffers no more.

Well, I don't own a pet. But it might as well be here. In the past seven years my mechanical horse has served me well, going places with me on its back in quick fashion. A means of transport that truly suited my purposes. All this while I have been challenged with a variety of mechanical difficulties with it, but most of them have been overcome with proper maintenance (which previous owners probably did not do a good job) and I have been fairly satisfactory. Until these past few months.

As it approachs the end of its life (in COE context) this year, it almost seems magically that it yearns for the grave. Last year was a bad year in terms of weather. The amount of rain that poured was simply ridiculous. Since I park in the open, it has seemed that this outpour throughout the year has had an accumulated and adverse effect on its waking health. It just became more and more difficult to start the engine when the weather is cold. Take note - this is tropical hot Singapore we are taking about here. On a number of occasions I have had to call in the tow truck because there was no nearby hill for me to roll it down for a push start. I have only managed to avoid calling everytime by the lucky fact that my house is almost at the top of a hill.

So what's the big deal? Let the mechanics sort it out! Yup, exactly what I thought too. Only that I have already sent it down four to five times and they have no problem starting the engine. Being a software developer is difficult. Anybody who has been in intense touch with software and a close communication link with its developers will probably know of the frequency of incidents where developers are unable to reproduce the problem; it is not easy to discover the problems without knowing the exact set of data and flow of events that trigger such cases. I guess as a vehicle mechanic, there is a whole different plane of difficulty that comes into play.

How does one induce the Earth to provide the exact weather conditions to reproduce the problem?

Looks the term "works on my computer" has some applicability in other fields.

Last year I did consider monitoring COE prices with intention to extend this bike for another 10 years. This year I can give up the idea.

Pre-release is for the masochist

icelava — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:41:56 GMT

Dealing with software, real actual released, gone into production, gone live, working software, is a serious pain. Both as a user as well as a developer, I experience both sides of the coin and most certainly understand and empathise either. I know of the unsurmountable challenge of delivering software that works robustly within unreasonable contraints of manpower and time. But at the same time, I know the sheer frustration when software behaves so stupidly that we can literally be thankful that destruction of computing equipment is not considered the same as homicide under the eyes of the law.

And therefore, dealing with software that is not fit for release, yet, is plain begging for bondage and torture.

*timidly raises hand* yup, I am probably one of them.

So here I am, once again trying to exercise a little initiative and getting ahead to try out Team Foundation Server 2008 on Windows Server 2008 (RC) and SQL Server 2008 (Nov 07 CTP). The first time I installed SQL Server, I forgot TFS makes use of Analysis Services (AS) and did not include that. When the TFS installation analyzer reported that, I promptly loaded up the SQL Server media again only to be greeted with a rather unexpected slap that this version's setup program does not include functionality to adjust an existing instance. It can only install new instances, and I can only use the command line to modify the existing installation. How to? Check Books Online it says. If only that set of documentation is easily found in BOL.....

After giving up searching for the instructions, I opted for the lazy way out and uninstalled the current instance and attempted to reinstall with AS. Except, Reporting Services (RS) won't uninstall. Since it cannot kill itself, the Default Instance does not go completely. That means I can only install new Named Instances. But then, RS would fail while the other components get through. I wonder if it is a conincidence that the Default instance's RS is still there..... my hopes of understanding the megabyte-long setup log is pretty low.

So here I am, once again blocked off by annoying rock falls on the road that prevent me to furthering my journey. This is exactly the type of incidents I keep encountering before I can even get close to working on the actual objective of interest. I'd really love to be able to try these things out and contribute more feedback to Microsoft, but the frequency at which these demons appear to thwart my plans with such resounding success results in a reality where I actually have to wait for stabilised RTM builds before I can obtained any substantial experience using them to have a significant say.

Regular, consistent reminders telling me why I hate being a trailblazer sure is nice.

Timed to perfection

icelava — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 09:07:02 GMT

Any company worth its salt knows the ~~importance~~ necessity of providing its staff with training and development resources to continually educate and nourish themselves with progressive knowledge. It is to my pleasure that my company invested in a deal with books24x7.com to provide an immense library of online books to read. Sure, there are some crucial IT publishers that are notably absent from their inventory, and reading books in web-page format isn't my preferred medium, but who am I to complain when I get to read books of the same subject across a variety of publishers. This is just something one can not personally afford under normal circumstances.

So what am I trying to complain about? Given that I am already going through a couple books online, I cannot find a sensible justification to spend my own money to obtain physical copies. With that general policy in effect, there is no option for "offline" reading. And just when I set time over the weekend to pile on the knowledge I need to get my work done, the website decides to go down for maintenance. Three hours before their scheduled maintenance period. And some possible five to eight hours before I get to access it again. Which is approximately time for bed.

So here I am left with a car with no juice, unable to continue the journey, because the petrol station ran dry. Anybody who regularly follows Formula One racing would know Steve Slater's love of the use "timed to perfection" when a car gets out of the pit lane barely ahead of their positional rival. This serverely thwarts the strategy of the upsetted team, and the driver has to work extra hard to attempt an overtake to regain track position.

But my question is, who is trying to thwart my racing times?

Get rid of them before they rot into toxicity

icelava — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:33:50 GMT

Note to self: when an ailing external hard disk exhibits signs of the end times, throw it away before its pessimism and depression affects the rest of the hardware. Lest a bad apple in the basket spoils all the good ones.

That means detaching the USB cable connecting to the desktop computer.

The power adapter of that external disk has shot itself to bits, and I unwittingly tried to revive it by plugging it in and out of the power socket. A short burst of electrical sparks later, and the USB ports on this three-month-old computer are hosed.

What a way to yell "I'm taking you with me!"

UPDATE 8 Sep:
Looks like this is a fairly common occurrence among other people's hardware - USB controllers are highly susceptible to breaking and fail to recognise USB devices that are plugged in, even though it appears as "working" to the BIOS and OS. So I rushed my desktop into the computer store's ER and paid them $30 to do something that I could have done myself, because I thought they could replace the motherboard for me. But, for faulty motherboards beyond 30 days of usage, an exchange needs to be done with the supplier/distributor.

And they do not open during weekends.

I need to bring it down on Monday. Means I have to send my mother to hospital then send my motherboard to the other hospital. Wow, what a pun play.

UPDATE 21 Sep:
Two weeks. My goodness. Ingram Micro simply cannot act on my case since they have no stock for my motherboard model. Looks like they have a fabulous support plan in place to keep customers functionless without a working computer. That is two weeks I have gone without accessing my primary email mailboxes, since my Outlook files sit in one of the harddisks. Gosh, remind me that a workstation computer should be purchased from a vendor who can do on-site swap support. Leave DIYs for entertainment machines.

UPDATE 3 Oct:
At long last. I finally get to see my computer released from prison and coming to terms with the rigours of reintegrating into society.

It's really strange. Just when I thought I could make better use of this machine when I was on home leave to be near my parents, it goes away. Now that I am back in "full force" spending hours in the office, it makes it way home.

Simply swell.

Doctor, here is the schedule

icelava — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:49:14 GMT

24th August: Dad is coming under the knife to clear the obstructive growth in the colon.

10th September: Mom is getting her ovaries removed for insidious growth that has increased in size two fold since last year.

Right now: can a neuro surgeon please remove this growth right in the centre of my brain known as "nagging annoyance"?

UPDATE 7 Sep, two weeks later
My dad has made a fast recovery since two weeks ago, got discharged in less than five days, and is recuperating at home. The thing is, the tumorous portion of his colon got chopped off - it is cancer, and it is Stage 4, because it has sprinkled to his liver and abdomen. Chemotheraphy to keep him going for a few more years. 6 to 9 months if not. But all in all, my dad's in good spirits. He wasn't having a good time in hospital, but God paid him a visit on the night he returned home, and has been highly encouraged to make the most of life. Nothing beats assurance from The One who makes things happen.

Come monday, it is my mum'sturn.

UPDATE 19 Sep, over a week past my mother's operation
Thank God. Only three holes poked into my mother to remove the cyst at the ovaries and fibroid at the womb. Somehow they were joined together so the surgeons took the whole lot out. Her womb's preserved; no cancer detected. By the next day she was already fit to be discharged. My parents are recovering steadily, but....

even though my company has been kind enough to grant me leave for that week, and to work from home for awhile after that, I probably couldn't have "left" the current project I am working on at a worst period. Being the technical lead, there were (and still are) many things I needed to cover but the turn of events just wrecks everything. A search was quickly mounted to get somebody to take up some of my duties. I quote "left" and I state "some duties" because the truth we all know is I cannot detach myself 100% from the project. Back then it was only our PM and myself who had been interfacing with the customers. And our PM quit half way. So there is terrible gap between the new members of the team and the customers, whom they have not met. I have tried to build a bridge to join the two parties together, but in such short notice all I could muster was a shaky vine construction and pray it does not break under the weight of people walking over.

Working remotely from home has been tough. Much tougher than I estimated. I am torn between balancing project and family time and duties, but the major issue I realise is the extremely difficulty in communicating develoment and programming ideas remotely via IM or phone. A tech lead cannot be working remotely from home and expecting things to progress according to his plan; from a team he does not meet face-to-face for hardcore discussions. Ouch. It has been painful and frustrating. But this is life, I guess.

Denial of Service attacks, made easy

icelava — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:11:40 GMT

*shhhh*

I am going to let you in on some secrets. Secrets on how to exploit some vulnerabilities in Windows Vista, thereby stalling the system, rendering in that frustrating despair of useleness. Sounds like fun, huh? Read on.

Drag the taskbar around the screen.

Yeap, it's that simple. Windows Vista occasionally trips and falls flat on its face while performing this exceedingly difficult inverted flat-spin manoeuvre 30 feet into the air. And fails to get up.

I don't know how many times it has done this and Windows simply refuses to recover. Not even a Shutdown command can put it to sleep. I have to reach down underneath the desk to press the button that releases the trap door into the burning furnace.

Next tip: plug in your external USB hard disk, so that it cannot boot past the BIOS screen.

Yeap, it wouldn't even load the disk/drive check sequence. It simply stalls, go take a nap, wet the bed and drool on the pillow. It simply refuses go any further until I plugged out the USB cable.

See, I told you that technology have gotten so advanced and made things so straightforward, even DOS attacks one's self is a mind-blowing child's play. Even your toddler kid or dog can do it too!

UPDATE: This external disk is coughing all along the way, with phlegm, blood and all. It wouldn't be long before a read or write operation would stall the disk, rendering it comatose and possibly endangering my OS as well. I had to power-cycle the disk itself before it could continue. Repeatedly. I wonder why there are no insurance plans for hard disks.

We call it Succession Planning

icelava — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 08:07:43 GMT

So I was so glad that I had the episode of the self-imposed dragchute behind me. Now Internet access at home is enjoyable fast again. But, like killing the leader or mastermind of a gang or terrorists, a new member will simply rise to assume to head position, thereby perpetuating the cycle of sorrow and despair.

Eversince I rectified the issue from my home end, the office end starts to play up. Or rather, AT&T's backbone, whom we utilise for our network facilities.

1     1 ms     2 ms     1 ms 10.33.240.1
2     2 ms     1 ms     1 ms 10.33.240.5
3   781 ms   494 ms 1497 ms 32.29.22.221
4   239 ms   189 ms   177 ms 32.29.22.86
5 3183 ms 3386 ms 3790 ms 10.33.192.1

It takes two hands to clap after all. Or in the context of networks, the speed is only as fast as the slowest router. Accessing infromation stored at home is a 5-minute click-and-wait activity. That is Internet Productivity for you.

The palm tree dance with mouse pointers

icelava — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 06:20:17 GMT

So I could finally get my new computer to reboot with ease, and to actually resize the video window during playback; I thought things could simply get better from now on. What a foolish thought that was, for not taking past trends to predict the future.

One of the incredibly entertaining aspects of Indian movies is the imperial edict thou shalt include song and dance at every momenth possible. If it is not the entire village celebrating together with them, the couple of focus would perform their lonely (but highly enjoyable) game around a palm or coconut tree and play hide-and-seek by shifting left and right around the trunk. Looks like my mouse pointer is trying to do something similar between my twin monitors.

I woke up, nudged the mouse, expected the monitors to power back up from their standby mode. I move the mouse around the DVI monitor to do some work, then dragged it over to the db15 monitor (primary) to attend to some windows. Except I couldn't see the pointer at all. Windows knew the pointer was there, highlighting widgets with its slick Aero glow as it tracked the pointer position. But I did not know where it was. This is so unfair; why must I be give only the single choice of the visible spectrum to work with the mouse?? I demand the same privileges as Windows!

Changing pointer themes did not work, so I logged off. The pointer finally became visible in the db15 monitor, so I logged on satisfied, but only to lose it five seconds later when the DVI monitor wouldn't show it. It almost seems like the machine wanted me to restart regularly now that it can. Reboot it was, but at what cost? Hopefully this was a freak graphic bug else i'd be force to destroy my elaborate desktop sessions of a dozen windows every now and then. So much for productivity.

UPDATE 1 Jul:
So in the past few weeks of usuage, if I am working in front of this computer for a whole day, I can expect the mouse pointer to go MIA on one screen three to four times. A mouse pointer for crying out loud. For something that has been in mainstream use for over two decades, it can really puzzle me how such a fundamental piece of user interface computing can just break down and completely stop me from work. I am forced to either sleep or hibernate the machine, if not complete restart, to in order to bring back the mouse pointer. The amount of wind that my sails lose from such simple issues cannot be understated.