Good Job Blocking Ads

You see that? You see that???? I am using Mozilla Firefox. Check the upper right hand corner. Adblock Plus. Amazing add on. I love it. It blocks all ads. Ads by Google, picture ads, pretty much anything. And, if it fails to block something, you can right click your target, and tell it to block it. It really is amazing.

So you can anticipate my surprise when I searched up some synonyms to love for English and there are some ads! You might be able to tell that on the side of the page is a section for more advertisements. Adblock Plus got those. But I have never seen these ads before! They are infiltrating!! I wish I could zap them! It makes me angry. I hate seeing ads. I can't stand people who use Internet Explorer because when I surf the web on their computers I have to deal with freaking ads on every page. Especially when I am not used to them.

Hooked

Dang it, I knew this would happen. I don't know how. I don't even know why I started to search for it. But once again, I am drawn towards programming. This time though, my "C++ For Dummies" book can stay on the shelf. I have advanced. I am now moving towards C#! C# seems to be Microsoft's new money making scheme. All I have done is read up on it and downloaded C# 2008 Beta Express Version. I am looking for a way to get a better version without paying money, but so far no luck.

Visual Studio C# is an interesting program. Most people, when they think of programming, think of endless lines of code. Well, that can be one way. When programming a program that has no GUI (Graphical User Interface) it pretty much is all code. Then again, it is really straight fowards. The user can't click on anything to change anything. They have to input everything on the keyboard, which really makes the program run in one direction.

However, when you have buttons, and scroll downs, and things to click on, the user can do those, most of the time, in any order they want. And so, the Graphical User Interface comes to life. And that, is what I am experimenting with. I made a program that is nothing but a button. However, the button is picture that I have, which I thought was cool. Even more, it said "Click Me!" And when you did, the program closed.

Pretty Stupid, eh? But it worked. That is the idea. It works. And now, I just need to learn more. Get a few books, figure out what else the program can do for me. And then...then I start to demolish the world!

A New Toy

I love finding new things to do on my computer. It is what I do. For example, today in Ubuntu, I got a new game going (compiled it from source, with a help of a friend) and I also had a train going across my terminal. It was very exciting. However, this new toy is the best of all. I recently got the idea... actually, I don't know why I decided to search for this. But I wanted to find a way to video tape something happening on my screen. I wanted to capture video of my own computer. So I went and looked. What did I find?

Camstudio.

A freeware software that can record what is happening on the screen. It is simply amazing. I've been messing around with it for about 5 minutes and I already like it. I can video tape my games, I can do anything. ANYTHING. It really is amazing. I recently recorded my friends chat as he typed to me. That was fun. So now, I will be able to make videos and post them here. If, I had anything interesting to Video tape. I wonder how much it can capture....

Fixed Sound

Blogging while extremely tired never came to anything good. Just some hallucinations But, as the title suggests, I did manage to fix my sound on Vista. Amazingly enough, it was quite simple. Someone has muted it. Muted it. Well, that is interesting, I don't know where they did that. Because long ago I got rid of that sound icon in the task tray. I don't like it clogging up space, and besides, I never use it. All I do is adjust my speak volume. So who the hell went into the computer and muted the sound???? The only thing I can think of is that a program did it, which could be possible, but otherwise... oh well. I'll get back to that later.

I recently got 3 Kubuntu CD's, that makes me happy. I brought one into school and booted up one of the laptops with it. That made me really happy. The school laptops are running Windows XP, so Kubuntu was kinda fun to see running on it. I don't think they liked it though. Oh well... I won't tell.

Dial-Up

I have DSL. Verizon DSL. It works. I don't really care about my ISP as long as it doesn't fart out on me. So far, Verizon never has, so I haven't really had any complaints. For all I know, all the the technical problems could just be with my computer, or some hardware issue. Not necessarily Verizon's fault.

So, Saturday I went over to a friend's house. Oh, my, god. They don't have DSL. They have Dial-up. I could have cried. What was possibly worse than that was that they were using Internet Explorer. They didn't have Firefox. Mozilla Firefox (I feel like I am promoting businesses here. Don't worry, it is not intentional.) So when I tried to load some web pages, I suddenly not only had to deal with Dial-up being a pain in the ass and slow. But I also had to deal with Dial-Up spending painful minutes loading ads instead of content. That pissed me off. Do you know what else made me sad? He wouldn't let me fix that. Nobody ever seems to let me touch their computers. Damn't. I'm not that mean!!!

Vista, And Why I Hate It.

My dad insisted on getting Vista. It was the newest Operating System on the market. It would be awesome for our new computer to have Vista. I didn't know much about it. I had done my research, but of course, no one knew much about it. Everyone thought it would be awesome. And so my new computer shipped with Windows Vista Home Premium.

*Deep Breath*

Damn.

Yeah, that was a mistake. Although, I never would have been able to form this opinion if I didn't have Vista. I have so many qualms with Vista. It is disgusting. Now, the important point is that I won't say Vista sucks. No, that is not me. No, I hate Vista. I don't care what your opinion is, but I hate Vista. Hate it. A great reason is the previous post. My sound if f***ed up. I don't even know why. I still haven't bothered to fix it.

So, some points on why I dislike Vista so much compared to Windows XP and Ubuntu. First off, Vista feels like it has to ask my permission for everything. Anything that could possibly affect my computer, it asks my permission for. And the worst part is, when you try to disable, Everyone is like, "Oh no! Don't do that! That you could seriously ***** over your computer!" Stupid permissions. Another thing that ticked me off, is when dual booting my computer with Ubuntu, (that is another story) vista would not load if it recognized another operation system on the computer. It just refused. It was like, "Gasp! Ubuntu! You traitor to Microsoft! I'm not loading! *Pout*" That pissed me off so much. In fact, when I told my friend that Vista refused to load, he said "Fuck this Vista Shit." My new favorite quote.

My annoyances with Vista go on and on. It makes me sad, which is why I'm on Ubuntu right now. Hmmm, I am very interested in OS X though... I think I should tri-boot my computer...

Sound

You know, I had a great post lined up talking about Vista and how I hate it. But, that is just going to have to wait. Because I have another, more dire, problem. So, I restart Firefox after fixing some Add-ons. iTunes is up. Oh yeah, I opened it. Well, I might as well listen to some music.

Right?

No. I guess not. I click on the first song and wait a moment. No sound. I go to the next song. No sound. I click on a random song. No sound. I close iTunes, go to My Computer, and open a movie. No sound either.

Well that's retarded. What the hell happened to my sound?! I check the wires. Everything appears to be plugged in and have power. This is getting stupider by the moment. (All the while, I am getting more and more angry at Vista). I go and check my hardware (in control Panel). Well Vista claims that my sound is "Working as Intended."

My Response?

Fuck you Vista. I do some more work with Firefox, and restart my computer. I'm getting to the root of all this. I boot into Ubuntu Linux. Log in and open Banshee (Music Player.) I click on the first song. And it plays. It is playing now. Ahhh, sweet sweet music.

Sooo.... what the hell is wrong with Vista? I'll find out. After I play and do homework. Vista, suck my ------.

Internet. Freaking Internet

Alright, this should be an amusing tale. So, I get a ride home from school. Very nice. I walk into my house, and sit down at my computer. Ahh... good ol' computer. We go way back. Back to... February.

My brother had called from college. He had a task for me to do. Simple, and one that I do quite often. However, it involves me having access to the Internet. And lo and behold, as I log into Ubuntu, my internet doesn't work.

Great. At first I thought it could have been a problem with Ubuntu. Linux, come on, it's not perfect. However, at many times Ubuntu has fared better than Vista has, and I like it much more. But, it will sometimes have its own problems. I restart my computer, and boot into Vista. Internet? No, nothing. Well fuck. Internet is everything. Internet is where I spend my life! I need it!! Hell, I can't update this blog, which allows me to vent my anger without internet. So I dive right in. Fix fix fix. Damn Internet, why won't you work!

And then I had haircuts. Well, I thought, this isn't so bad. My Internet has died before, it's kinda temperamental. So I shut off my modem (DSL, don't worry) and head off to my haircut. I come back an hour later to find my computer mysteriously on. And logged in to my name. Well damn, I should never told my Sister my password. Or how to turn the computer on for that matter.

With vexation I vindicated my vile computer. (I just saw V for Vendetta). I turn the modem on and off. I do all the Vista automatic fixing crap. It didn't do shit. I keep at it for 20 minutes. Nothing. Fine! Be that way. I restart my computer and load into Ubuntu. I try fixing it from there. Nothing. I switch back to Vista, and pick up my phone.

....

I call Verizon.


Okay, "call" is not the correct term. Willfully diving into their nexus of automatic computer systems is more accurate. After an agonizing five minutes, I grab some information that may help. My phone tells me that I should restart my computer with no network hardware plugged in, and then put it back in when the computer is running. I jot down the number of who I could call (at Verizon) and unplug everything.

Restart my computer.

Log into Vista.

Plug everything back in.

It works.

What. The. Fuck. Like, it kinda makes sense, but not really. My computer is always plugged into the internet. Why would it all of a sudden decide not to like it? I don't understand. I don't get it at all. Although, now next time my Internet decides to be constipated, I will be able to fix it much quicker. Either that, or get a new modem.

My Computer

I like my computer. You will often hear me complaining about it, but in all reality, it is a very nice computer. I like it a lot. I got it this February, after my birthday. I had been begging my dad for a new computer for about a year, and he kept putting it off. "For a Christmas present, after Vista comes out, for your Birthday." Finally he ran out of excuses. I eagerly went online and continued by research into a new computer with a renewed fervor.

My friend had been helping me out a lot before now. He and I would go onto a computer website, customize a computer, and see what it looked like. The only problem with this is that my friend felt that he was vastly superior to me, and he always knew what was best. It went from us picking out a neat computer, to him telling me I don't need that kind of power.

Bull Shit.

You always need more power. More Power! And so I got more power. I will update these specs when I am actually home to check them out (I'm at school posting this) but I believe it went something like this...

2.66 Dual Core Intel Processor
2 GB of DDR2 Ram
7900 Nvidia GeForce Graphics Card
---Sound---
Sony DVD +-RW
500 GB Hard Drive (2 X 250)

I didn't build it. No, instead I customized it off the Dell website. I was kinda vouching for an Alien ware computer, but my dad didn't like the 16,000 dollar price tag. Oh well. It's an XPS Dell, and is very nice.... I got an new sound system, 2.1, which was much better than my old crappy one.

So my Qualms?

Well, I want 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 surround sound for my computer. That would make my iTunes library sound sooooo much better. All those songs would now have a real kick to them. Something that I would really like.

My Monitor sucks. Okay, fine, it doesn't "suck." It does what I need it to. But it is only 17 or so inches. I really need (for optimal gaming experience) a.... let's go with 36" monitor. Yeah, now we are talking. Big. I like big.

Modem. Thank god it is no longer a dial up. That would have caused some Cosmo to explode. Dial up is the equivalent to a anarchist in heaven. It just never should happen. Anyways, my modem will occasionally, and sporadically, over heat itself, and then refuse to connect to the Internet for a period of time. That really sucks when you have things going on base on real time. And if you aren't online, then you should crawl into your corner now.

And yeah, after that, it is just me wishing for a slightly better keyboard, a nicer mouse. All those things will come. They will come.

Drunk Driving

I'm not literally drunk, just the equivalent. I'm dead tired. And I wasn't driving a car. Just my computer. By the way, never do those two things together. It will most likely get the mouse thrown across the room (funny stories about that!)

So, I was typing away on Word 2007, when I alt-tab to my browser and look at the question again. When I tab back to Word, I found that the entire setup of the page had been changed. What the fuck. I didn't even touch anything. Or, I don't think I did. Word just decided it didn't like my setup and changed it. Something that I wouldn't put past Gates. Of course, it was only a few minutes later that I found out how to switch it back. But still, the point stands, that Word 2007 is unnecessarily hard to use, especially for a non tech person.

And what the hell is up with the new file types on Office 2007 stuff? Xlsx, and Docx? They aren't backwards compatible at all. What the heck was wrong with .Doc? I switched mine so fast it made Microsoft's head spin. Utterly ridiculous.

F***ing School Computers

I go to CVUHS. Champlain Valley Union High School. It's a good place. I like it there. One of the cool things is that we have a lot of computer power. We have over 4 different computer labs, and over 50 public laptops that you can use for a time. It really makes me happy. Of course, with 1300 kids at one school, you do need a lot of computer power.... that isn't the point.

Back to the amusing anecdote. I was working in one of the computer laps with a friend next to me. He was showing off his shiny 4 GB flash drive as I was diligently typing my French homework on Word 2007. It was going well. Out of habit, (and lucky for it) I saved the document every other line. A paranoia that developed into a incredibly useful habit.

So I was mildly ignoring my friend when he decided to leave. I was almost done my French Homework. He logs off the computer next to me, pulls out his flash drive, and gets up. I save my document.

As I am pressing ctrl+s the screen blacks out. I look at the screen in mild shock. Before my mind figures out what the hell happened to my computer, the screen comes back to life. It is not of Word 2007 and my document. It is of the "Windows XP is shutting down." Faster than I have ever seen a school computer restart, the computer shuts itself down, and then reboots itself.

WTF? I just wanted to save my Document!! What?? How the hell do things like this happen??? I quickly hopped onto my friends now vacant computer, logged in, and checked the document. *Phew.* Mostly saved. I only missed a few sentences.

Why do computers do that to me? I don't even know what the hell happened. It just... died. Kinda like it was tired of me typing French on it. Is French really that bad?

The First Post

Well, I guess I should really start out somewhere. The first post is definitely the most stupid, and probably the least read post in all of blog-dom. Speaking of which, why the hell did I start a blog. This means I will actually have to update something. Which means *gasp* more work! I don't know why I do this to myself, I already have enough going on.

Anyways, for those of you who will actually read this, I am going to be focusing on computers, and when they fail. In all actuality, this will probably be on long freaking tangent. So if you found this by mistake. It will probably be in your best interest to stop reading. Right now.

Ahhh, the wonderful computer. I love this, I just get to rant. I don't have to have anything planned. If something stupid happens, then I can post it. Ironic though that I am doing this on a computer, while yelling about the computer. My computer is very good. I will post the full specs later, but I am very proud about my computer. It is a dell.... which reminds me... I had some fun with a Dell employee a few days ago. That was hilarious. Ah, the things I can talk about. I will do all of that later though. Because now, I have other stuff to do. More efficient ways to waste my life. Hmm , that would be a good quote...

"The Invention of the PC allowed thousands of people around the world waste more of their life more efficiently."

That should be a Farside. Or a Virtruvia Comic.