Creature of Mad Enthusiasms

So, LJ has a new kind of text cut specifically for spoilers. So, if I say that at the end of FALL Sherlock goes waltzing off in a purple tutu it's supposed to be cut until you scroll over it and make it pop up.

If I've done this right, the tags are lj-spoiler text="Not an actual spoiler"> and /lj-spoiler>

And - I do like this part immensely - it's supposed to work in comments.

I've dusted off an elderly laptop for use in the living room, an Averatec 2200 series. (Once upon a time, I was quite impressed at its svelte weight - a mere 5 pounds!)

Anyway... I think the battery has died on it; no matter how long it's plugged in, the battery light keeps flashing amber/green and it says there's no charge being stored. This is not particularly a problem these days; I'm treating it as a mini desktop.

No, the problem is that the bastard keeps beeping at me. About every 2-3 minutes, unless I put it on mute, BEEP! ... BEEP!

I've looked through the sound settings and turned off all the alert beeps. The rest are customized, and this isn't one of the custom sounds. I believe this to be battery related, but I don't know how to turn it off.

What happens if I just pull the dang battery *out* and try to run it? Will it STFU then and let me watch YouTube BEEP videos in BEEP peace BEEP?


In a completely unrelated note: FANDOM FAIL! Why did you people not tell me that there was a Doctor Who/Sherlock Holmes crossover novel?

This was supposed to be a simple job that took place while I did other things, not a 5-hour nanny-the-computer mess that still isn't fixed.

So, I replace iTunes. I delete the bad drivers and re-replace iTunes. I check that Apple Mobile Services is running, and then go into device management and update the driver.

Then I reattach what used to be Tubso.

Windows Hardware Wizard pops up. Apple warned me about this and told me exactly what to click to point to the apple mobile services usb driver. I go there. I click "install." I click "do not ask me again."

What does the f-ing computer do? IMMEDIATELY pop open the hardware driver wizard again.

Three times in a row. Three times I send it to the same file, the *BRAND NEW FILE* installed in the BRAND NEW ITUNES. Finally it throws its electronic hands in the air and gives up. ("This driver cannot be loaded. Code 10")

iTunes, on the other hand, is chugging along happily trying to get the Touch out of recovery mode and reinstall factory settings. You'd think "lombotomize this equipment" would be the easiest option, wouldn't you? "In recovery mode, must click restore" I click restore, then restore and update... Downloads new software. Fine. Preparing ipod for restore - the part where it power cycles the ipod touch? Not so much. Return to previous three paragraphs.

Wait a few minutes while iTunes continues to say "preparing ipod for restore"... and then Error code 1604.

Following Apple's advice, I close and reopen iTunes. It tells me that it detects an ipod in recovery mode, and to restore. I click restore, then restore and update...

Okay, this time it didn't bring up the Wizard half a dozen times. It did give me another error 1604 instead of a working Touch.

I've updated the drivers.
I've updated the software.
I've rebooted several times.
I've followed all the instructions.
I'm not using a USB hub; I'm connecting to the front ports (which are the only options and through which I was able to update the shuffle.)
I'm using the only connection cord I've got handy, although I suppose I can steal one out of my travel supplies.

I don't know what to do.

Tomorrow, after I weep in frustration, I'm going to try downloading iTunes into a netbook and see if I can finish Tubso's lombotomy there. But even if I can, there are the issues of convincing the computer that Biss isn't a camera... and frankly, although I need to update the software on the ipad too, I'm TERRIFIED to try.

I just don't know what to do.

Aside from possibly moving my itunes library onto the netbook and if the problems continue, taking the whole mess of equipment to Apple and telling the Genius bar that if they're such geniuses, they can fix it.

Have upgraded to Firefox 5 (which looks hideous; now I'm searching for a theme that will make it less slit-my-wrists-grey and move the tabs back below the command bar) and killed cache and cookies.

Now I can read LJ... but not comment from the desktop. This is being done via email post. However, I was able to put a comment on an old post via the ipad, so things are functional, if fugly.

When I was going through DVDs to show to my guests and then have a marathon on my own, I realized that I have an awful lot of them that are just *there* - I watch the movie maybe once every other year or so. And between the ability to rent on iTunes or Netflix, I'm wondering if it's worth having such a large collection of movies that are just taking up space.

If I keep them, then I'm not spending extra money if I ever bother to watch them again.

If I get rid of them, I have a couple of options. Donate them to Team Wench for the yard sale, for one, but they won't bring in a lot of money. Another is to donate to one of the charities around here that send DVDs to soldiers where they will presumably be more loved than they are gathering dust here.

And a third is... what, y'all?


[Poll #1639972]

No Mulder. From now, assume that there's no news until I post that we found him or have given up; reporting failure is only slightly less painful than experiencing it.

We're settling into a routine - x amount of time putting up flyers/talking to people each day; y times to check the county pound's pictures; z times to check the local shelter's pictures. (How much do I love the Internet and the ability to search at home? Even if it meant M making a wild goose chase after the wrong cat today.)

Will be catching up with direct offers of help via email.


The tech question - I've just loaded Noscript for Firefox, but now I need to learn how to get it to allow certain things - the automatic fill-in of tag titles, embedded video, etc. Advice, please?

Tech Question: Can anyone recommend a good flv to avi converter?

Knitting Technique (from Lime and Violet): YouTube demonstration of no-wrap short rows. It's all K2t & m1, which breaks the rhythm much less than wrap-1-turn, and it's a nice clear video you can pause or replay as much as possible.

PS - Know what I'm liking most about Ravelry right now? Being able to see certain yarns in use, so I can decide if they'll give me the look I want before I buy them.

Request for Tech Advice

What Windows OS virus-checker do you use, and are you happy with it? (I've gotten a bit fed up with ZoneAlarm and want to know alternatives.) Bonus if it's freeware, but does anyone rely on Spybot alone, with or without that annoying TeaTimer?


Announcement

My parents have been looking at retirement communities for the last couple of years, but they've been very unenthusiastic about anything they saw and very ambivalent about moving out of the house that we moved into when I was three.

So I was pretty gobsmacked last night when Mother called at a time when she's normally getting ready for bed to say they found a place they LOVE, the house is already on the market, and they move in January.

!!!!

(They say it's because we kids should have one last Christmas in the old house. However, later in the conversation, it started to sound a lot like "we need you kids to provide 4 extra hands and 2 extra cars to help us move stuff." I am amused.)

Posting in case anyone has any idea what to do.

Okay, I set up "default view" and "weekly" filters. When I pop open my flist, it defaults to "Default view."

HOWEVER!

When I hit "previous," the default switches back to "All Friends" when it goes to the skip=20 page. The way around this appears to be confirming the default by hitting the "view" button next to the filter as soon as my flist comes up. Okay, I can live with that.

What's proving weirder is this: Say I want to read everything all at once. So I go to the filter on the first page and click "all friends" "view." It doesn't go to all friends. It goes to the default view. BUT, if I then click "previous," I automatically go to "all friends" on the skip=20 page.

I'm so confused.

There are ways around it, of course; it seems that if I rename "default view" to "daily" and just remember to physically pick it every time I log in, I avoid the whole thing. However, that in itself is also a pain in the patoot.

Filter readers, how do you handle this? If it's possible to type in the filter name in the URL bar, is it possible to bookmark *that* version of the page?

I followed the instructions on someone else's LJ to kill that annoying popup whenever you roll over a link on LJ, but it didn't take. One more time for the slow class, please? Because that little feature has to die. NOW!

Thank you bentleywg! Go to Viewing Options, uncheck "graphic previews," save.