Jun
7
Where I Went
Filed Under Music, Non-technical, Ranting, djlizard | 13 Comments
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!
Dec
23
Anti-virus/security software sucks
Filed Under Ranting, Security, Software, Stupid, Viruses | 30 Comments
To celebrate symantec-sucks.blogspot.com's existence I have decided to finally upload my avsucks folder.
Dec
18
Top ten reasons why Dial-a-fix doesn't support Vista yet - and - Mac zealotry
Filed Under Apple, Dial-a-fix, Mac, Microsoft, Ranting, Stupid, Vista, Zealotry | 22 Comments
(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.
Dec
15
Entitled - Notepad
Filed Under Data recovery, Ranting, Stupid, djlizard | 10 Comments
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
Dec
12
The history of DjLizard - and - Your inflated sense of self-entitlement (0 of 1)
Filed Under Dial-a-fix, History, Ranting, djlizard | 7 Comments
(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...
Mar
30
Miscellaneous bullshit
Filed Under Ranting | 10 Comments
Up until Vista was released, Acer has been shipping out desktops and laptops with the system partition formatted as FAT32. Are you fucking kidding me?
Vista now *requires* NTFS, so Acer is forced to use NTFS like the rest of the universe. What the fuck is wrong with Acer? I also hate Acer's other divisions: ALi (who makes chipsets that are actually worse than SiS chipsets) and AOpen.
To top that off, Acer still uses Toshiba MK*GA* (such as MK8025GAS) drives in their laptops. Huge "fuck you" to Toshiba for having hard drives that fail so quickly and consistently (the bearings always dry out - it's a design flaw that's never been fixed) and one to Acer for using these pieces of shit.
What a shitload of fuck.
I'll be back later with some more gripes.
Edit: I'm back.
Why does Verizon Security Center install its giant, buggy product even when you already have Norton Antivirus (which is bad in its own right), ZoneAlarm, Spysweeper, and/or even more miscellaneous protection programs? It doesn't even check for other security software, or ask you anything. It just installs. Thanks, I'm sure my user needed to run at 10% speed (due to dueling antiviruses) and/or blue screen/hard lockup every few moments.
Why does Sony partition its hard drive into C: and D:, where C: is around 10GB or less and D: contains the rest, and then not explain to the user that they need to store files on D: because Sony screwed them over? Why didn't they move Program Files to D: so that, you know, a user can actually install software without running out of C: space? It's nice to have an empty 245 GB D: drive, but I really think my user should have been told about this retarded setup beforehand. Now he has to pay me to combine the partitions and undo all of the damage Sony did by setting it up this way. And for what? Partitions don't increase performance, they only serve to complicate matters for end-users.
Feb
13
This is me, strangling Geek Squad
Filed Under Ranting | 24 Comments
One customer's hard drive was failing (severely; hundreds of weak sectors) and I rescued the data to a location on my network. She had an extended warranty through WorstBest Buy, so I told her to get her drive replaced and get the system up and running and then I would copy her data back to the new drive.
When Geek Squad took a look at the drive, they told her they wouldn't replace it as it was working fine. Sure it was, that's why Windows boots up just fine and there are no bad blocks found by Spinrite or badblocks(8).</sarcasm>
I told her to raise hell until she got her drive replaced, and to tell them to run sector tests on the drives because it's very plain to see that the drive is failing. Just because the S.M.A.R.T. status shows up fine doesn't mean the drive is fine. She finally got it replaced and I finally got her data back to her. Oh yeah, and they left no OS on it - I had to use the Toshiba recovery DVD and install all of the updates myself. I guess Geek Squad doesn't really care if a person's computer is up and running and safe or not.
Speaking of up-and-running, a second customer with a failing hard drive went through the same deal with me. Apparently his drive was failing bad enough because Geek Squad didn't bitch about it being fine, and just replaced it. I put on the ticket that the computer should be brought back when it is up and running so that I could copy the data back at no additional charge (I only charged 1 hour of labor for the whole recovery).
He brought the machine back today and there's no operating system on it at all. Geek Squad had told him that I could copy what I salvaged off the drive back onto the new drive to make it work again. Sure, that's going to fly. So now I have to charge an additional hour of labor to reinstall and update Windows because Geek Squad... I don't know. I just don't like (most) Geek Squad agents. I understand that there are some of you out there that are like me, and that's fine, but as an organization, Geek Squad is pretty shabby.