[ROT] Dear AMD,

I’m trying to upgrade the drivers for my Radeon HD 5850 card but every attempt fails horribly.

If I uninstall the default MS Certified driver that loads in (it is from 2009) then try any of the recent AMD Catalyst packages it fails to even find the hardware.

If I leave the MS Certified driver on then try your AMD Catalyst package it realizes a new driver should be installed and installs it… poorly. On reboot it loads up in worse shape than if I had no driver installed at all.

Good job.

I tried calling tech support but your hours didn’t offer 24/7 support or if you do have that support, it’s not listed anywhere obvious like under the “Contact Us” section.

I then went to your web form to report the issue – because I like firing information off into the void and never hearing back from it – but while trying to pick the issue from the drop down, there wasn’t an option that sufficiently described my issue: Your drivers suck ass now, please address.

Thank you,

A new nVidia supporter.

In all fairness, I realize this is an older card, but when I run their application which is supposed to autodetect my card and download the drivers for me, it grabs the same ones that aren’t working. I’m now in a state where I can’t install the ones that did previously work.

I’m in no mood to do an entirely fresh install of the OS (I really shouldn’t have to) so I figure I’ll yank the card out, perform an Irish jig on it then pop in a new nVidia card.

Sad thing is that driver support used to be so much better. You could easily find and download just the driver you wanted without all the bullshit getting rammed down your pipeline.

 

Little Boys Put Stuff in Their Pockets.

I’ve said this numerous times to TheWife and her mother (who sometimes does laundry at our house in an attempt to be helpful).

When doing laundry for boys (or men), realize that they have pockets in their clothing and they use these pockets instead of a purse. That’s right. Men and boys don’t uses purses so we have to put stuff somewhere. Pockets have worked well since the days of Bilbo Baggins, no need to change that now. So check the pockets or pat down the article of clothing to ensure nothing is in there.

If I were to add up the cost of items lost in the wash because someone didn’t check the pockets, the amount would be about 500$.

500$.

That was the cost of three Express Adult Bus Passes and an 8gb iPod Touchscreen Nano (which was a week old).

I know, ladies are thinking, “If you don’t take your stuff out of your pockets before dumping it in the {hamper/laundry area} then it’s your fault!” or maybe even some of you saucier ladies would say, “Don’t like it? Do the laundry yourself.”

To which I’d respond that TheWife has OCD when it comes to laundry. If there is an article of clothing not hanging up in the closet or in a dresser, she immediately tosses it into the laundry. I have gone to bed, dead tired, at 3am and left my pants on the bench in our room only to wake up at 5am to find them in the laundry.

I kid you not.

So remember… if you’re doing laundry, little boys (and big boys) have pockets and they use them.

Check the pockets.

 

 

Social Networks and Kids

Back in my day, when you were a stupid teenage kid you did stupid teenage stuff. If you were lucky, only your friends knew about it. If you were unlucky (or your friends were assholes) your parents or maybe the kids on your street might know about it. If you were really unlucky, your school found out about it. But even then, memories fade.

Combine that with social networks and you’ve got a wide open audience to see your stupid teenage antics. All it takes is one dumb moment, a video camera, the ability to post it to YouTube and being on Facebook… voila. Instant stupid teenage move, uploaded to YouTube which goes viral on Facebook so that the world gets to see and that will stick around forever. Well, as far as we can tell – the internet is as ‘forever’ as things get. If you put something up there, it’s never really gone.

So to address the kids… if you’re going to upload something to YouTube take a good hard second look at it and ask, “Is this something I really want the world to see?” and also ask, “Is this something that could come back to haunt me 5-10 years down the road when I’m looking for a job?“.

Of course, another question to ask is, “Am I easily identifiable?” but it’s probably better to just not post stuff to YouTube without a second or third thought about the content.

Digital Slide Shows in the Wrong Hands…

… are still slide shows.

I was treated to a digital slideshow from my sister-in-law’s husband on their recent Caribbean Cruise. It started at the local airport, showing a dozen photos of that familiar locale and then a dozen more of the plane. Then followed up by a score of photos of the wing, turbines and about ten more photos of the screen in the chair in front of them which was displaying the plane’s progress towards the destination and altitude. Oh, and another dozen (or more photos) of the clouds and land below.

Wow.

Then some of the airport they landed in, the airport hotel – which was rather nice – and about ten pictures of the view out the window from the airport hotel – which really wasn’t nice at all; it consisted of a lot of rooftop space and vents. Yay.

Then pictures of the shuttle to the cruise, the cruise ship from the outside, the docks, their room in the ship (quite sizable), the towel animals the cruise ship staff put on their bed in the shapes of animals, them holding a tropical beverage, them eating breakfast, lunch and supper for a week.

They had very few pictures of the cruise ship itself (TheWife commented on this, “Where are the pictures of the rest of the ship? All we’re seeing is your room, the dining hall and your food?”) and very few photos of the locations they visited – the ones they did have were from a tour bus and often had someone’s head in the way.

So yeah. Digital technology is great and wonderful until you put it in the hands of someone that is going to make use of that 10gb photo card by filling it with pictures of food, familiar locations and the backs of other tourists’ heads.

Sadness.

Unheeded Warning Indeed!

The downside of raiding late at night is that sometimes you just don’t pay as much attention as you should. Like me, buying a trinket for 2k that had a lot AGI and a weapon damage increase proc for my Hunter. Sounds sweet right?

Not as sweet as I thought.

See the item description: Unheeded Warning. One key word there makes the trinket practically garbage for a Hunter.

Do you see it?

I’ll give you a hint, it starts with “M” and ends with “ELEE”.

Yeah, so the weapon damage increase proc increases white damage but only if you use melee attacks. Which, as a Hunter, I don’t… unless I’m doing it wrong. I could have sworn it said ‘physical’ instead of ‘melee’.

At least it has lots of AGI on it.

/cry

 

Whoops!

Been a little quiet with posting partly due to work being busy but mainly due to being locked out of my own WordPress account.

I forgot which one of the billion passwords I have was being used for this and for some reason I wasn’t getting any emails when trying to submit a request for a reset. I even checked the spam folder regularily to see if it went in there.

Nope.

I took a bit of time earlier to dig through my email settings and discovered emails from WordPress somehow ended up getting on my blocked list.

So I unblocked it and away I go.

When is the Ding Sound Not a Good Thing?

When it’s the sound made of your minivan bouncing off a wall in the underground parking at work.

Fortunately, it was just the rear right panel in front of the wheel well. That and it’s a minivan… that is paid off. If it was my mid-life-crisis-mobile I’d be pissed.

If I had one that is.

The mid-life-crisis-mobile. I think I want one.

Cable Bill…

I figured out why my cable bill took a jump up this month. When I bought the receiver (HD with PVR) with my new LCD (120mhz, 42”) TV the local cable provider (Rogers) offered me a free trial package for two months.

Well the free two months ran out and I forgot to cancel it so I called them yesterday about it. It appears you can go to their website to add packages but they don’t let you remove them without calling in.

Go figure.

The package was about 20$ more a month which really wasn’t a big savings and I should look at it again to see if I can hack off a bit more. I figured while I had their ear I’d ask about the other issues I was having…

I was getting fewer channels upstairs than I was downstairs which included the HD sports package and the time shifting. They promptly sorted that out.

In closing, they offered me a two month trial of the HD Nature package (I checked the price for that online – its about 8$ a month) which I debated getting for the kids so I figured I’d try it out.

Any bets that I forget to cancel it before the free two months runs out?

A Tip for Internet N00bs…

You need to realize that if you’re going to post a comment to someone’s blog then you’re IP is going to get tracked. And that IP can reveal some pretty interesting information about you and where you’re connecting from.

Prime example, it took me two seconds to find this information and I could dig deeper if I wanted to bother but I figure the post originated from a childish fanboi who didn’t like what I had to say about Mass Effect 2.

While I don’t really care much for political correctness, I do draw a line at ignorant racism.

The internet isn’t as anonymous as it seems.

Enjoy.

Bowl of Coffee, Cup of Cereal…

I’m that with it this morning.

Grab a mug, a bowl, a teaspoon then open the instant coffee (I know…), scoop up some in the spoon and dump it into the bowl. Empty the coffee from the bowl into the mug where it should be then turn on the kettle. Put some Fruit Loops (I’m feeling it) cereal in the bowl, add milk, grab kettle of boiled water and pour into bowl… almost. I did catch myself there.

Good start.