I won't pretend to know what you're thinking
I can't begin to know what you're going through
I won't deny the pain that you're feeling
But I'm gonna try and give a little hope to you

Just remember what I've told you
There's so much you're living for

There's a light at the end of this tunnel
There's a light at the end of this tunnel
For you, for you
There's a light at the end of this tunnel
Shinin' bright at the end of this tunnel
For you, for you
So keep holdin' on

You've got your disappointments and sorrows
You ought to share the weight of that load with me
Then you will find that the light of tomorrow
Brings a new life for your eyes to see

So remember what I've told you
There's so much you're living for

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2807602702866411553&hl=en

Penn and Teller’s Bullsh*t! show, speaking about gun control and how useless it is. Needless to say, there’s language used. If that bothers you, then don’t watch it.

I’m not libertarian, but Penn & Teller make a lot of sense sometimes.

Yes, I’m a member of the NRA. I believe in the right (yes, a right) to bear arms. I do believe that if more people had concealed weapons permits, it would help, and not hurt, in situations such as the recent Virginia Tech shootings.

And if you’re someone who wants a concealed weapons permit, odds are you are one who is not afraid to use it in the appropriate situation. And that’s why there are rules/processes to obtain a concealed carry permit. Here in California, it is up to your local county sheriff to make the call.

Anyways, I get tired of hearing the same old baloney every time there’s some mass shooting in the news. Newsanchors/public blaming guns, lack of gun control, blaming video games, etc… God forbid we actually blame the thing responsible— the person who was firing the weapon!

Look, we have enough gun control laws. And criminals, murderers and general psychopaths just don’t care about those laws. If they want to harm someone, they’re going to. Regardless of what the law says. What if this guy had used a knife instead of a gun to murder 30+ people? Would we be hearing public outcry against the lack of knife control laws?

Guns are tools, and can be used for good as well as bad. Don’t blame them for what their owner is doing with them.

I suggest everyone check out A Human Right.

Having trouble viewing Windows Media content in Firefox under Vista? You’re not alone. Microsoft has finally released a patch to fix the problem.

Does Outlook 2007 just crawl on your screaming-fast machine? Microsoft has a new patch:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c262bcfd-1e09-49b6-9003-c4c47539df66&DisplayLang=en

I just applied it, and already can tell a huge difference. My PST file is fairly large, and this fix is meant to target just that. Enjoy.

Pandora can seem weird sometimes, but hey, I dig all three songs/bands, so there ya go. It works. Now it’s playing Flyleaf… awesome!

It’s not fun, let me tell you.

The motherboard in the XPS 400 requires a special driver in order for Windows XP setup to see the hard disks. If you’re trying to install Vista, you’re going to be just fine without these drivers (as they come with the Vista disk.)

However, for the unfortunate few who must reinstall XP on this type of machine, you’ll wonder why you don’t see your disks. You have to create whats called a slip-streamed XP installation disk.

This is definitely not for the non-tech savvy. I don’t know how Dell expects grandma and grandpa to be able to stick their Dell XP CD in and have it reinstall properly (because it won’t.) And why didn’t Dell put the drivers on the XP disk in the first place? Bah.

Anyway, you’ll have to use a program called nLite to assemble this slip-streamed Windows disk.

I’m not going to spell out the directions here, hopefully you can follow along to these instructions.

I recently started working at my new job, and my boss was generous to provide a top-of-the-line system for me to use. It’s got a Core 2 Duo processor, 2 gigabytes of RAM, and two 80 gigabyte 10,000 RPM drives in a RAID 0. Vrooom.

Problem is, every so often, my machine would “pause”. Not freeze, because I could move the mouse and such, but couldn’t perform any actions. Then the machine would “catch up” with itself and work fine again. While this was happening, the hard drive light would remain lit.

Looking in the system’s event log, I found numerous entries that said a timeout occurred in iaStor.sys — I’ve had my share of problems in the past with this particular driver, so I knew it was an Intel driver.

I tried updating to the latest drivers. No joy. I tried the Dell drivers.. nope!

And then I searched the internet and found the jackpot. A post over at the Things Worth Knowing blog regarding this very issue. There’s so much in the comments, it would take you days to wade through. Let me just save you the trouble: Intel has admitted that it’s their fault.. and they blame Microsoft! I found this information on The Flying Nerd blog.

You can read the full writeup at Intel’s website. They have a registry fix you can attempt yourself if you’re savvy enough. It solved the problem for me. But isn’t it a bit childish to blame Microsoft for your lack of proper testing?

And in the end, I feel sorry for Joe-Schmo consumer who spends $2k+ on a computer just to get it home and have it freeze every so often. I also blame Dell… I mean, come on, even basic computer usage tests would have revealed this problem. And judging by the response online, you can bet a lot of people are unhappy and affected.

Scott Hanselman writes a blog post about missing image previews under Media Center in Windows Vista. I recently faced something similiar, but with video files. I tried everything, and nothing would bring back the preview icons for .MPG, .WMV, etc… I eventually wound up reinstalling Windows Vista. And I believe I tracked it back to an older version of Nero.

So if you’re having the same problem, you too may need to reinstall. Or try the registry tricks from Scott. Maybe you can add that “PerceivedType” key to the different video files and get it working again. Who knows. I’m just frustrated that a company I have trusted for years (Nero) could have released a version that blows those away with such ease.

I’ve become a bit of a contest junkie lately. I enter contests left and right, without care to my personal information floating around the intarweb. Yay me. But hey, I might win a free Macbook or iPod, right?

The two sites I’ve been using have been http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/ and http://www.contestgirl.com/ — they both seem pretty on-top of the internet contest “scene”.

So yeah, check it out if you like that sort of thing.

 

 

 

 

From an excellent post by Mark Shuttleworth, and the main point I’ve been driving home about the silliness of DRM for years:

It only takes one crack. For any given piece of content, all it takes is one unprotected copy, and you have to assume that anyone who wants it will get it. Whether it is software off a warez site, or music from an MP3 download service in Russia, or a file sharing system, you cannot plug all the holes. Face it, people either want to pay you for your content, or they don’t, and your best strategy is to make it as easy as possible for people who want to comply with the law to do so. That does not translate into suing grannies and schoolkids, it translates into effective delivery systems that allow everyone to do the right thing, easily.

Mark makes numerous other fine points, so be sure to visit his blog to check it all out in detail.

If someone wants to steal something, they’re going to. Regardless of whether or not there is DRM on it. There is _always_ a way to crack it and come across it for free. Why are good customers treated like potential criminals?

Recently Apple (and Microsoft) announced that a large catalog of tracks will be available without DRM from their stores. This directly stems from the announcement from EMI (a major record label) who is authorizing the sale of their entire catalog DRM-free. This is a step in the right direction, however…

Apple has chosen to increase the cost of this DRM-free music ($1.29 from $0.99) And why? Ahh yes, they’ll be sending you a higher-quality AAC file (256kbps versus the iTunes standard of 128kbps.) So are we paying for that track? The right to the listen to that track? For the digital bits themselves? Why is a higher quality track (which should’ve been provided in the first place) costing us more now?

I recently had a friend call me and ask why he couldn’t get iTunes songs to import onto his Creative Zen music player. He had just received a $50 gift card from his wife and wanted to load up his player with songs. I had the unfortunate job of telling him that he’ll only be able to sync his purchased iTunes music with an iPod. Nothing else. He wasn’t too happy about that, to say the least.

In the end, the legitimate consumer gets screwed with DRM. I’ll be glad to see it crumble away.. audio is the first step, then we just have to work on video. Did you know that if you have a first-gen HD-DVD player, you are going to be forced to get a firmware upgrade soon, because of the HD-DVD encryption being cracked a short while ago? Isn’t that just lovely for us legitimate users of content! I’m sure we all have plenty of time in our schedules to do this upgrade. Not to mention the technical know-how to pull it off.

Bah.

 

Alanis wins. Fergie loses. My Humps, indeed.

Okay, here’s the deal.

There’s a new website, called RankARoo (yes, a funny name) that helps you find new/interesting sites on the web. Ever used del.icio.us or similiar bookmarking services? This will be right up your alley. Plus they have social features, to allow discussion and sharing of the links.

Why am I rambling on about this? Because they’re having a contest right now, and every person you get to sign up under your referral link gives you a better chance of winning a brand new MacBook Pro. Since I want one reaaaally bad, please sign up via this link. Then you too can get a referral link and send it off to your friends. And they tell their friends… and they tell their friends… and so on, and so on. (If you got that movie reference, you get a cookie.)

Once again, that link is:

http://www.rankaroo.com/contest/referral/107

Thanks!

Kelly at A Yoga Coffee Outlook is giving away a Zune MP3 Player. I suggest you go check out the contest now on her blog:

http://www.yogacoffeeoutlook.com/

For sucking so bad under Windows. I swear, iTunes and Quicktime on the PC is a ploy to get people so frustrated that they’ll just go buy a Mac.

For non-flash version, click here. For an extra clip from the film, try here!

It’s on YouTube in Russian. Probably will get pulled soon. Check it out!

Update: And it’s gone..

According to Dark Horizons, the trailer will premiere March 19th on television during the premiere episode of ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars”.

And here’s a whole new round of photos, which Disney will most likely force me to take down. Makes a lot of sense, don’t it? Would be the worst thing in the world to allow free promotion for the film!

The Disney Blog has the artwork!

Looks nice, I can’t help but think there will be more of them, though, with each character…

Well, for the past two weeks I’ve been living with my grandparents in Temecula, in order to shorten the distance every morning (and night) to visit my new job at Lewis Technology Inc. I only have to do this for another day, and then I get to start going to their new office, opening in Miramar (which is thankfully much much closer to where I live.)

For almost seven years, I worked at Taylor Guitars and loved it. I made it through a lot, including my supervisor leaving the company. But I decided, for many reasons, that it was time for me to move on. And I got lucky while stumbling across a Craigslist job posting for Lewis Tech. The ad even said all the soda you could drink… Sign me up!

It’s been a great two weeks so far, and I have very few complaints, if any. My new coworkers are diverse, interesting and funny. And my new boss seems just as “hip” as my old boss (no offense to my old boss!) These next six months are my “probation period” to see if I will fit into the company. Here’s hoping that I can demonstrate my skills as well as my professionalism.

All in all, I think this transition will be an excellent one in the long run. The past two months of my life have been crazy, with moving out of living with my mom, buying a condo, buying a new car, and getting a new job. The next few months probably won’t slow down either. There’s another big event around the corner. Hint: it involves a diamond and a metal band.

Anyways, I thought I’d share some random photos I took last weekend of the mission field banquet held at our church. Enjoy!

Nevaeh giving me the staredown.

Robin and Heather: BFF!

This is what happens when I try to be artsy with my camera. I think it’s kinda cool. Heather holding Nevaeh up.

Taken behind my new work— a train goes through the backyard every hour or so. Fun!

Is anyone really surprised about this news? I mentioned that some titles had been cracked in my last DRM rant, but now everything is wide open. At least the titles that are currently available.

They (the movie studios) could revoke this key, forcing the software/hardware players to have to push out a software/firmware upgrade, or if that’s not possible, replace people’s players. How stupid crazy is that?

Since it’s most likely a software player that was used to compromise the key, people will have to download a patch to the latest version. Is this patch going to be 100% free? What if the version is really out of date? What if this happens again, but two major revisions of the software later? Will the older version users automatically get upgraded to the latest, or will they have to pay to watch the latest titles?

Just, ugh. We as consumers need to grow a pair, and tell the studios off. But that’ll never happen. And meanwhile, the people who wanted it for free/to steal in the first place have it, without having to deal with patches or firmware updates or players that don’t play.

Check out this press release from Disney regarding their “Year of a Million Dreams” and some special photography that was done by Annie Leibovitz to celebrate. I think it’s amazing. Lookie here:

Scarlett Johansson plays Cinderella…

Olivier Platt as the Mad Matter, Lyle Lovett as the March Hare, and Beyoncé as Alice…

David Beckham playing Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty…

Here’s a strange bug I was pulling my hair out trying to diagnose. My Zune media player, as well as Windows Media Player, were taking forever to start playing tracks. I would see “media changing” in the lower left corner for almost 30 seconds or so, then the song would start. That really stinks when you want to jump around different tracks and listen to them.

You’ll never guess what’s causing this delay. It’s the audio enhancements I blogged about before. Poopie. If the “Disable all enhancements” checkbox is not checked, my media players will be slow in starting any song. Check that box, and bam, back to normal.

No idea if this affects iTunes’ playback… I’ll have to give it a try I suppose.

Gah. What the heck could the two have in common? Anyway, I’m blogging about it in the hopes that someone else running into the same problem can find out how to fix it.

Heather Lynn, I love you! I never thought I would be so blessed to have found someone who completes me in every way. You make me a better person and love me for who I am. Thank you for the amazing memories so far, and I look forward to what the future holds for both of us.

Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.

— Song of Solomon 8:6

I read a lot of technical blogs, but one that usually stands out is Peter Bromberg’s UnBlog. He is very involved with the eggheadcafe.com website, which you might have heard of already, or stumbled across while searching Google for some technical help.

Anyway, he recently had a post up regarding the web being stateless and how it relates to ASP.Net and AJAX development. I’ve been doing some job interviews lately, and quite a few of the interviewers have said that most .NET programmers don’t understand how HTTP works. They just know about dragging controls onto a design-mode interface and wiring them up. They can’t tell you about HTTP response codes, caching, or how ASP.Net really works. And that’s a shame. You should always start with the basics and build yourself up.

I suggest you all put Peter’s blog on your feed lists. He recently had a post up asking for people to review his blog, in exchange for a free link. So here goes. Write your own review, and maybe he’ll link to you as well.

Love that tattoo!