Search This Blog

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Computers!

Sometimes, I'm sure like most people, I really hate computers, mine in particular! It's been acting really strange and kinda makes me think it's sick or something like that. Settings change in folders that shouldn't change on their own, things disappear, my internet doesn't work for more than a few minutes, you know, stuff like that. Oh well, hopefully I'll get a chance to talk to my dad about that soon. He's great with computers and also has the patience to help me out over the phone! What a good guy! Not a task for some 'cause I'm not to computer savvy, but I'm sort of learning with all the problems mine's been giving me over the last few months. I hope to one day be able to figure this stuff out on my own. Sad that I don't even know that much about my computer that I've had for 4 years....

Anyways, James and one of his classmates and myself were planning a trip to see some of Gettysburg today but the military has again spoiled our fun. Though we were mainly going for James and his classmate since they have a report to do on it at some point. I still wanted to go 'cause I've never been there before so why not, right? Well, they (James class) has some sort of check today @ 11am to make sure they have all that they need for their week long outdoor field training they are doing next week. James thought it was supposed to happen Sunday but apparently someone from his class decided it wasn't important for him to know that it was today and not tomorrow so he's scrambling to get his gear together. There are some things about the military that really just don't make much since to me, their logic is screwy on occasion. Don't get me wrong I'm glad we have it and all and I admire greatly those that are willing and want to serve our country 'cause it's something I know I couldn't do but it really does bug me how it works sometimes. Oh well, nothing I can do about that! :-P Sorry, I guess this was more of a rant than a I expected it to be...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

ahh, military life! The good, the bad and the ugly. I am sorry things didn't quite go as 'planned' but that does soom par for the course when dealing with the government. *deep sigh* Hopefully, it will be better! Your computer sounds like it has a virus, or spyware or something on it. freaky. I hope it's not terminal ;-)

Hope you guys are doing well too! We are keeping our heads up, barely, we feel a bit overwhelmed by the fact that in 10 days or less we will have a new baby in this house again! scary and exciting all at once! We sure miss you and think of you often. I hope you guys are doing well and feeling good! Much love from us~

Leah said...

I know it seems that I complain a lot about the military but it's not as bad as it could be. And it's obviously where God wants us to be right now, but it is hard sometimes. I think I'm still in the "adjusting" stage....I hope it passes soon! Thanks for the encouragement also, I definitely need it! :-)

We miss you guys too Kris (and Ben you too!). How is Kurts sister? We're still praying for her and your family.

Anonymous said...

Your computer IS sick! VERY SICK! In fact I think it has MPD. (Multiple Personality Disorder) Here's why I think that.

As you know I have been building PCs for many, many years and built that machine from scratch. I have never skimped on components and always put the best "state of the art" stuph inside my machines. For it's time it had the best video card, the best sound card, the fastest RAM, the fastest hard drives, etc. You can tweak every single piece of hardware on that PC. It's a beautiful thing. Of course the hardware is only one piece of the pie and maybe not even the key ingredient. You gotta have software to show off all that hardware.

Enter Windows XP and a multitude of applications from productivity programs, to utilities, to last but certainly not least GAMES. All you kids were at home when I built that beast and "Gamer" is our family's middle name. (Except for me of course unless it's a one-button game) Well, back to my story. Now where was I? Ahh, your sick machine. Think back for a moment to the time when our house was THE place to be for gaming action. At any given time there seemed to be someone, at our house playing the XBox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Dreamcast or THAT PC. When we had a crowd over, which was quite often, most of the time there was someone on the PC playing a game or surfing the net. Now we get down to what you have been waiting for my dear daughter, why I think your PC has MPD.

Now, think, for a moment, of how many people came over to our house and spent time on that PC doing everything from playing games and surfing the net as well as installing software (usually games), updating software (usually games), tweaking settings and everything in-between. Please understand I'm not complaining. I would not have had it any other way and would gladly do it again given the opportunity. How could I complain? God used both your and Jared's friends to bring me back to Him. Anyway, I know you have experienced the following. You are installing a new software program and you get a message that goes something like this. There is a newer version of... would you like to replace the old Y/N. Or, this program needs... would you like to install? Or, you must uninstall before... Think of how many times you have visited a web site that says in order to view this page you must...

You get the picture.

Given the crowd at our place, think of how many times this may have happened. I know for a fact, at one time there were two completely functional versions of "Counter Strike" installed on the PC. I also know I spent many hours keeping the machine as clean as I could so we could all play another day. I used to find ALL kinds of stuph on that PC. Most of it was easily removed but as I said earlier, "enter Windows XP". Windows is not very good at ignoring stuph that has been installed and then uninstalled. There always seems to be remnants of software left on the PC after you uninstall it and Windows REMEMBERS. Windows is not very forging if you remove a file that it "thinks" it needs even if it has no relevance to any program or any hardware currently installed. The proof of this is evident in the fact there is an entire industry of utility software dedicated to cleaning up Windows.

Your PC, my dear, has remnants of every person that came to our house and touched it. It has bits and pieces of hundreds of programs, games, utilities, tweaks, etc., installed and uninstalled by our friends. I include myself in the pile. It has remnants of each person's personal preferences. It has MPD.

Although there are built in mechanisms to help it keep its sanity, time may have taken its toll. As you know PCs excel at numbers. And, almost always you hear the word clock mentioned when referring to a PC's horsepower. CPU clocks at 3.2ghz, Video card clocks at 500mhz, Over clocking, etc. After talking to you about your latest problems not only do I think your PC not know who or what it is any longer. It doesn't even know what time it is!

As I told you when you were here, I have seen thousands of symptoms on PCs over the years but I have never seen what you described. I hate to admit it but I am completely baffled. Having said that, I want you to know I haven’t give up on it yet and will continue to try to figure out how to help the poor thing find itself that it might continue in your service.

Well that's all I got to say about that. ;^)

Leah said...

I love you daddy! I also think you hit the nail right on the head about my computer!! I truly believe it does have MPD. Right now it's connected directly to the internet instead of wirelessly and get this...it doesn't see that connection either!! Computers are so fun sometimes. :-) Anywho, James is thinking more seriously about getting me a new computer (hopefully a laptop) or getting Windows XP Home edtion and giving it a clean start. I guess we'll see....

Anonymous said...

...computer-talk...blah, blah, blah...........................................................................................................................................................................blah!!! I lvoe ya'll anyway!!

Anonymous said...

love