About a month ago I accidentally spilled some orange juice on my computer desk. I thought I had it all cleaned up until my mouse started flaking out over the last couple days. I decided it was about time to pick up a new one because I can’t stand my mouse “unclicking” when I want to click and drag something. So anyway, I had to run over to Best Buy today to pick up a new version of Norton AntiVirus because it’s the only one I’ve found that doesn’t grind my system to a screeching halt as it scans every single file I work with, every time I work with it. Since I’m extremely picky about my PC components I wanted to get a Logitech G7. Apparently the big stores don’t see that as in demand any more because Best Buy didn’t carry it. I figured there had to be some new super tech that I hadn’t heard about yet so I browsed over the other mice they had in stock but the closest thing I could find to what I was looking for was the Logitech MX Revolution. The big problem I had with it, though, was the “super spinny extreme ball bearing zero friction never stop moving” mouse wheel feature. Since I use my mouse wheel for things like switching weapons in FPSs I don’t exactly want something like that. After picking up my AV from Best Buy I ran over to OfficeMAX in hopes they were a little less clueless. Sadly, they weren’t.

This brings me to the main point in my post. I was running out of options and I didn’t want to run all the way over to CompUSA so I headed over to the last place I could think of that carried “gamer” accessories: Milwaukee PC.

I headed into the store and was greeted by one of the employees who showed me that they did, indeed, have one more G7 in stock. I was pretty happy because that meant I’d save a lot of time and gas. We head over to the register and I asked him if they accepted personal checks. I don’t carry a credit card anymore after the trouble it got me in while in high school. Here’s how the conversation went:

Him: “Yeah, we do but there’s some restrictions”
Me: “Oh?”
Him: “The check number has to be above 1500, I need to see a valid driver’s license…” (so far so good) “… and a major credit card.”

… What?

Me: “That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Why would I pay with a check if I had a credit card with me?”
Him: “Sorry, that’s just our policy. If the check bounces we ping the credit card.”
Me: *sigh* “I guess I’ll go get some cash.”

Yeah, that’s how it went. Isn’t it the point of a business to make it as easy as possible for a customer to spend money with you? As I said before, why would I want to pay with a check if I had a credit card with me? I guess I now remember why Milwaukee PC is the place I go to when all the other options are essentially exhausted.

Edit (about 10 minutes after posting): So I just opened the G7 I got from Milwaukee PC and it’s USED. What the hell? I paid full price for this POS and they give me some used thing?

Edit again: Oh yeah, I just got back from Milwaukee PC and had another interesting conversation with the same guy:

Me: “So, do you have any G7’s that aren’t used” (Yeah, it wasn’t a nice way to say it but I was getting pretty ticked with this place)
Him: “No, that’s the only G7 we have, it’s new.”
Me: “Uhhh, no it isn’t.”
Him: “Well, it was probably opened by someone who was checking it out in the store.”
Me: “No, let me prove to you that it’s used.”

I proceed to take the mouse out of the packaging again and show him the black “gunk” that had accumulated on the mouse feet from being used so much. That was the only thing I needed to prove it but there were other things I didn’t have to mention that I noticed, such as the spot on the paint where the finger had wiped away some of the paint…

Him: “Oh, well it was new when I got it.”
Me: “Can I just get my money back?”

I wonder how many people they scam this way.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hope you all got all the cool things you wanted for xmas. I got a laptop (HP Pavilion dv9000 series, AMD Turion x2, 2GB RAM, 2x 80GB HDs and a geForce Go 6150) from my parents and a Nerf N-Strike Longshot CS-6 (Nerf sniper rifle) from our “secret santa”/gift exchange we do in our family. It’s a blast to play with and it’s friggin’ huge. Kevin’s going to be watching his back from now on.

So I finally got around to cancelling my hosting subscription with my previous provider. This means that at the end of this month when they don’t get paid again they’ll be shutting down the account. This also means that anyone still hosted on that account will not have access to their files and their site will be down. Get in contact with me and I can get you set up on my new VPS before then. It’ll be $10/mo again for pretty much everything you need. Or, you also have the option of finding your own hosting, of course. The places I’d recommend are: JaguarPC, WebOnce or Known Host (This is where my VPS is hosted, they have EXCELLENT support and service thus far).

So because some people on IRC have a problem with the Blizzard patch downloader for WoW I hosted the 1.11 patch on one of my high-bandwidth hosts for them. I think it’s really funny to see the bandwidth usage for the month of June, it goes from almost nothing the entire month to a TON on patch day. Check it out:

http://www.erikd.org/images/ss/wow/wow_patch_1.11_bw.png

I just can’t stop watching this for some reason. It’s just way too incredibly funny/entertaining. Does anyone know what video this is from?

http://www.erikd.org/images/swf/shnup.swf

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated and I figured it was about time again.

First things first, Crystal’s engaged now. Grats to her! Crystal and Drew are both done with school now, grats to them again! Kevin graduated from high school last weekend. I’d say grats to him but he’s getting a little full of himself it seems… It’s getting annoying.

Second, I’m done moving webhosts now. I switched hosts about 4 times last week for various reasons and I’m now hosted with JaguarPC. It’s nice so far and I’m happy with what they provide for the money.

I also just finished putting up a forum at http://forum.erikd.org so go sign up there and shoot the shit with me. I mainly put it up for feedback on the projects I have up, though. So if you use any of those and you have suggestions or problems, post it there. I still want to get a new design up that echoes what I want this site to be, but I’m not sure when that will happen. Maybe some weekend when I don’t have anything else I want to do and I feel inspired.

I’ve started a membership at a local gym now, too. The first day I went was on Monday and god I’m still sore from the workout. So I’ve officially started on the road to getting in shape (much needed)! I changed my work hours so I’ll have time to stop by the gym after work a couple nights a week, too, so hopefully that’ll help me stick with it.

Oh, I picked up a new PDA, too. It’s a Palm TX. Yeah, after venturing into the world of Windows Mobile for a bit with my Axim x50v I’ve given up on any hope that Dell will fix the problems with the PDA (crashes, SLOOOOOOW, crashes, SLOOOOOOW, etc). They said they’d release a fix almost 7-8 months ago but nothing ever came from that. So now I have a very expensive paper weight that I’m hoping will one day be able to run linux (which is currently being ported). I really like the PalmOS UI much better than the Windows Mobile one. The start menu on a PDA seems like a dumb idea. It’s great for a desktop where you have a lot of screen real-estate, but on a PDA it’s an unneeded waste of space. Not to mention that I haven’t come across a PDA OS that runs faster than PalmOS. It’s instant on and off so I can turn it on, do what I need to do and turn it off. Unlike my Axim in its current state where it takes a minute to get into any kind of PIM app, another minute to enter anything and turn it off. By the time I have the chance to do anything I’ve already gotten frustrated with the damned thing and used a pen(cil) and paper instead.

So I was talking to Maalygos on the Azgalor IRC channel today and he pasted this link… I highly recommend reading it, it’s great for some laughs.

http://www.centos.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=127

These are the people that are running our government… No wonder it’s so messed up. (I also find it incredible that this guy worked on computers for 22 years but is still this stupid.)

I released edBackup version 0.2 today. It includes some changes I wanted to add myself as well as some things Wayne recommended. For a list of changes and a download link head over to the edBackup project page. I think I’m going to be redesigning (either slightly or otherwise) this site so updates I make to projects don’t need to be put on my main blog but on a smaller subsection of the main page.

Here’s a post I found as I was browsing Slashdot this morning. It’s gotta be the funniest comment on Slashdot I’ve ever seen (or that I’ve seen in a long time). It’s in reply to a post about The Pirate Bay and how it’s hard to shut them down due to Swedish law. (Posted by Billosaur)

–

Viborg said that no one has successfully indicted The Pirate Bay or sued its operators in Swedish courts.

RIAA Lawyer: We are petitioning the court to shut down this illegal operation, called The Pirate Bay, on the grounds they are trafficking in illegally obtained and downloaded material.

Swedish Judge: Worrrr dooooo ishky dishky mooooovvvviesss kannnnshhhhhh veeeeeeeee downshky looooooodshky?

RIAA Lawyer: What?

Swedish Judge: Worrrr dooooo ishky dishky mooooovvvviesss kannnnshhhhhh veeeeeeeee downshky looooooodshky?

RIAA Lawyer: I don’t understand!

Swedish Judge: Caaaaaaaaasssssshhhh dushmiskked, bork, bork, bork!

Yup, so I actually kinda finished a project I started. I got sick of forgetting to back up my game configs, screenshots and mods or whatever so I wrote a little utility to do it for me. It’s an app that you can schedule backups of multiple directories to different backup locations. As with almost all my other projects… it has an “ed” prefix. It’s called edBackup (what an original name!) and you can check it out or download it here. Let me know if you like it or if you find any bugs. I’m using it myself (it’d be kinda stupid to write it for myself and then not use it) so I’m sure I’ll find things that I want to add later but if anyone has any suggestions there’s a chance I might add them.

Also, a HUGE congrats goes out to Drew… He’s getting married!