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Financial struggle

Times are tough around here. We're a one income family living in a two income country/state. Although my wife has tried numerous times to get a job, due to 1) the economy sucking and 2) all the kids taking up all the employment with their summer jobs, we have been unable to find anything steady for her. When she did find a job she was laid off on the very first day (not her fault). The second time she found a job she hurt her back and is right now laid up in bed in agony. In my new career I am working 50 to 60 hour work weeks at a slightly higher pay rate than when I was at Digital Doctors, but it is not enough to supplant the fact that I'm the sole provider. Once my new career is in full effect (offices open, we're on the road, etc) I'll be okay, but right now we are financially crippled. This is my second post like this, and for that I am ashamed, but sometimes I just have to stop and ask for help. I'm calling out to the internet for assistance! If you have $5 or more to spare and like Dial-a-fix or my music, please consider donating.

Donate to DjLizard

Dial-a-fix

Dial-a-fix's fate is currently in the hands of my trusted manager Fred de Vries. He is searching for either a large company to buy it outright (for a lump sum) or failing that, a small team of trustworthy freeware guys/gals who will take care of it. Don't worry, were a large company to actually make an offer, they would have to fully abide by my large list of rules in order to be accepted. These rules would require that Dial-a-fix's spirit is not tarnished in any way (and that it remains free). The end result would be a product that is actually getting updates and support, not to mention widespread adoption due to a larger name being attached to it. I even have a list of bugs that need to be fixed that I will give to them. So, although I'm selling out, I won't let anyone sell out Dial-a-fix itself (by creating a "pro" version or putting advertisements in it and other garbage). If any large companies are looking at this and want to buy it, contact 54321fredvries123456789@123456789gmail.com (delete the two 123456789 parts and the 54321 part).
I really wanted to continue working on it myself but time just can't allow for that, and I fear it shall stagnate and die if I don't put it into capable hands soon.

The data on the DjLizard.net wiki has been moved to wiki.Lunarsoft.net where it can be properly cared for.

Also, I uploaded a bunch more stuff to my last.fm artist account.

EDIT: Some stuff is up on my Last.fm page!

Hi all. I've been away for a very long time because I've... switched careers! I am no longer fixing computers for a living. Alas, I have left Digital Doctors (who are fucking awesome) and have begun settling in to the field of financial and investment management. Yep, I will learn everything I can about managing money. My work ethic and style forces me to be the best at everything I do, so eventually, I should be as good with investing and money management as I am at fixing Windows issues.

Yes, this is kind of an odd change, and quite abrupt at that, but it is for the best. I am totally done with computers. I was becoming sick of the thanklessness.

My wiki is being taken over by Lunarsoft.net, where it will finally get updated, but I'm not sure what to do with Dial-a-fix just yet. If I find the time and desire, I might update it, but that's not likely to happen very soon (if at all). I work about 60 hours a week now. Hopefully I can find some trustworthy developers to pass on the "legacy" of Dial-a-fix.

I may update this site a bit (for instance, the theme) and maybe put up some of my old music (and some of my unreleased stuff nobody's ever heard) just so I can at least have some content again. :)

EDIT: Some stuff is up on my Last.fm page!

To celebrate symantec-sucks.blogspot.com's existence I have decided to finally upload my avsucks folder.

Read more

(Another double feature!)

Part I: Top ten reasons why Dial-a-fix doesn't support Vista yet

10. Vista sucks
9. Vista sucks
8. Vista sucks
7. Vista sucks
6. Vista sucks
5. I don't have very much personal time available to me these days.
4. I don't have any spare computers with which I could run Vista at the moment.
3. I use Borland Delphi which is fucking terrible, and I haven't been able to get back to my C studies for several months now. Object Pascal (as a language) is kick-ass (in my opinion), but Borland's IDE is complete garbage - especially its cost. Don't suggest .NET... that's not even funny.
2. Microsoft changed nearly everything Dial-a-fix is capable of fixing to the point that Dial-a-fix has to be rewritten from the ground up just for Vista. Nobody's really got lists of "common" fixes the way XP has. Dial-a-fix is just a collection of known fixes, anyway - 99% of what DAF does is not even my invention.
1. Microsoft should fix their shit so Dial-a-fix need not exist. Is it too much to ask for a brand new operating system version not to bring 7 years worth of bugs with it? Basically, #1 is that I can't currently be arsed to fix their brand new old bugs - that's their fucking job!

Everyone should petition Microsoft to get their shit together. How can this stuff happen so much to so many people that a program like Dial-a-fix needs to be made? If I can do it, why can't Microsoft?

I will probably make a Vista version, but don't ride my ass about when and where.

Vista is an abomination and it just goes to show you that even if you "listen" to your customers (by way of usability tests, etc) it doesn't guarantee you'll get the implementation right. Microsoft needs to go back to the basics and re-think the way people use computers. Most people are multitasking, non-deterministic users. Some are single-tasking deterministic users who have old habits that are hard to break. Tough for you folks - you'll need to renew your computing license. One of the problems I see in Vista is that it tried to simultaneously retain backward compatibility while moving forward. The result: a train wreck. You know who doesn't care AT ALL about your previous programs working? Apple. They couldn't give less of a flying double monkey fuck about your programs working in the next version. You know what else? This seems to be perfectly acceptable behavior in the Mac community. Why isn't anyone up in arms about how Apple constantly ditches everyone, each time a major OS release is made? At least Microsoft tries (even if they inevitably fail).

Part II: Mac zealotry

Don't even get me started about Mac zealotry (too late). Some (but not most) Mac users have serious mental issues and honestly believe that Apple computers are somehow special or better than PCs. I have news for you: they suck exactly as much as PCs - no more, no less. They fail too, and often in the same ways as PCs. Sure, there aren't any major viruses going around, but that's because people with virus programming skill are usually in it for the money, and are too skilled to waste their time on 1% of 1% of the computing population. (It might even be embarrassing to them to some degree.)

Apple almost had it right except that they've spent a lot of their time and money mocking Microsoft Windows and not a whole lot of time developing a better computing attitude and environment and moving forward with technology. So what if you're some hipster/yankee twentysomething who buys vendor-locked brand name computers at ridiculously inflated prices to use most of the same programs that are available for Windows? Sure, sometimes it's not the exact same program, but with so many choices available, there has to be something for Windows that does the same thing as what you're trying to accomplish on a Mac. There's a lot more freeware on the PC than there is on a Mac, too.

Most of the time they mock PCs for the wrong reasons. PCs don't get viruses, Windows does. PCs don't need major overhauls to upgrade operating system software - Windows does. A PC is just some hardware. Everything after that is up to the operating system, of which there are many available. It's just unfortunate for all of us that Microsoft won that war before the war really began.

You know the Mac guy on the PC versus Mac commercials? That guy is more smug than a motherfucker. Meanwhile, the PC guy is hilarious and has a nerdy charm to him. The Mac guy is a huge douche about everything, constantly mocking the poor PC's troubles, ignoring the fact that he has his own, as well as the fact that he lives in his mom's basement smoking pot all the time and needs to shave, get some respectable clothes, and get a fucking job.

I digress.

You basically bought a PC with different software on it. You have what kind of processor and motherboard (I'm sorry - "logic board")? Oh right, Intel. What kind of power supplies are used in Macs? ATX and BTX. What kind of hard drive? Seagate. Congratulations: you bought the most proprietary PC possible that still contains nothing but regular modular PC parts (excluding the motherboard's design and firmware). At least it can run Windows, I guess. I'm not sure if that's a pro or a con.

Welcome to part 1 of 1 of Self-entitlement for dummies: hunting and escaping.

When I left you last I was blathering on about my history and crap. Now I'll tell you what happened that SNAPPED me right back into reality.

Tits McGee entered the shop at 4:00 and was all like "here's the laptop and keyboard for the keyboard replacement" and one of our receptionists was all like "oh hey Mike there's a keyboard replacement" and I was all like "not to mention the keyboard replacement"

But seriously...

(Remember, naughty language ahead. This time I fucking mean it.)
Read more

(This is going to be the longest blog post I've ever written.)

Hello all. I've been away for quite a while. I have been put in the position where I work as hard during personal time as I do during actual work time. In fact, going to work is a bit of a relief to the life part. As such, I have not done any development at all on Dial-a-fix and I am very sorry. Vista support is long overdue (as you can see in the message you get when you try to run Dial-a-fix in Vista) but I have just not had the energy to complete this overwhelming task with my remaining personal time. Vista changes the way *everything* works to where Dial-a-fix is no longer able to perform the same tasks. For instance... I know someone who wanted to fix System Restore and was not able to make use of Dial-a-fix because the operating system is Vista. Unfortunately, in Vista, System Restore is no longer System Restore - it's more of a function of the Volume Shadow Copy service. So you see, I have no idea how that shit even works now. It's not the same at all. At least 50% of the DLL registrations don't even exist anymore. Most of the checkboxes would go away. Windows Update is now a program and a few services so I don't really know how that works.

I have not answered my email box for a couple of weeks, either, so I apologize if you wrote to me and I did not respond. You can try posting in the DjLizard.net subforum at Lunarsoft.net forums and hope that Tarun or others can assist you or wait it out for me to eventually get to you.

Below this line is where the long story begins...

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Does anyone know why Dial-a-fix sometimes gets an "unspecified error" while trying to unregister MSXML3.DLL? It seems to be new because it's never done that in the past. Apparently you can immediately try it again and Dial-a-fix will then be able to unregister/re-register it. It's weird.

(Update: see the comments for a possible explanation. Short version: just run the same parts of Dial-a-fix again and you shouldn't get the error. If you still have trouble with Windows Updates, try clicking "Flush SoftwareDistribution".)

Superfail part 1
Superfail part 2

Thanks to astute reader Nate Coffey and Dial-a-fix, we've found another DLL registration bug.

The current version of wuaueng.dll provided to Windows 2000 service pack 4 clients has a bug in its DllInstallServer.

In the first picture is a "before" screenshot that shows that all of the SvcHost key values are here. This is a freshly installed Windows 2000 machine that only has Service Pack 4:

In this second picture, I have visited Windows Update, gotten the latest Windows Update client, closed my browser, and then unregistered the DLL using regsvr32 /u:

In this third picture, I have re-registered the DLL using regsvr32 /i, but it caused an error (0×80070057) and only one key was put back. The netsvcs key is lost at this point. In order to fix this, merge this default SvcHost key .reg file.

The error code 0×80070057 is E_INVALIDARG, or invalid parameters/arguments.

The current version of Dial-a-fix will accidentally trigger this because of the malformed DllInstallServer in wuaueng.dll. Once a new, fixed version of the Windows Update client is pushed out, Dial-a-fix will be able to help you again. I'll be filing this as a bug with Microsoft - I hope they fix it.

Edit: be sure to read Superfail part 2 for the solution for afflicted machines.

If you are asked for a password when removing Trend Micro PC-Cillin, open regedit, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Trend Micro\PC-Cillin and either rename or remove the System sub-key. Then try the uninstaller again. It's just that stupideasy!

This doesn't work if you are already in the uninstaller being asked for the password and then remove you the key, so remove the key before starting the uninstall process.

Midas reports:

You can also use pcctool.exe for 2007 and older or tissprt.exe (or similar name) for 2008.

which will remove Trend Micro PC-Cillin without a password. You can find it in the installation directory.

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