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http://www.last.fm/music/Djlizard/Maiyshed

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I don't have any other information than that.

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On January 9th, 2009 at 8:00 PM EST, our beloved Sabrina Jean Owens passed away.

She was my greatest friend and our most special family member of all.

Things aren't going to be the same here without her.

She was such a sweet cat, would always carry on a conversation, never ever got into any trouble, and understood a lot of English and tone of voice.

The past two weeks were very traumatizing to all of us, especially her.

She was in a strange place with strange people and other animals, always having things poked into her or removed from her, so I'm sure she's in a happy place now.

I'm relieved that she no longer has to suffer.

We couldn't have asked for a better friend and family member.

We all feel strangely at peace after this trying time and will always cherish our memories, photographs, and miscellaneous objects around the house that were her favorite things.

We love you Brina; may you rest in peace.

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

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Unfortunately we have recently discovered that our beloved cat of 7 years, Sabrina, is very sick.

She stopped eating a few days ago (the same time we changed her food brand) and we didn't recognize the signs of illness. I thought she was just being a primadonna about her food (like most cats are when you switch brands), so I changed it back. She won't eat that either. Fortunately she was still drinking water, but she won't even eat a treat. Something is wrong: after watching her sniff a can of freshly opened tuna without even so much as licking it, it was time to act.

We took her to the emergency vet and discovered after some testing (x-ray) that she has an obstruction in her stomach (a round foreign object of some sort) and she will need surgery or else her liver will fail. Her skin and ears have already jaundiced (although you can't easily tell; she's a black bombay) from the liver working overtime trying to digest whatever it is (we figure it's tinsel).

We have just enrolled in a good pet insurance (www.petcareinsurance.com) but it hasn't kicked in yet, and the initial visits to the emergency vet and overnight stay (she needed an IV/fluids to get stabilized) will set us back a bit.

We're hoping you will help us with that by donating a few bucks to Save Our Brina. A PayPal account is not required (you can use a regular credit card).

Here are some pictures, in chronological order, of our Brina, and with this, we hope to take many more.

This is one of the earliest pictures of Sabrina, taken with a very terrible Kodak camera:

Sabrina sometimes wakes up with her tongue sticking out and it stays that way for a while until she's had her morning coffee:

That's my brother Jeff on the right, in a picture taken in 1989.

Here's Sabrina hanging out inside of a Mountain Dew box:

Sabrina sports her new stylish bandana + collar:

She actually likes her collar a lot, unlike most cats which will defy your every attempt to put one on them.

Sabrina loves boxes, as you can tell from the teeth marks on this box that came from some cheesy "game":

Sabrina, hanging out on the couch with some Halloween stuff:

So that's our Brina.

Here are some stats:
Full name: Sabrina Jean Owens Cooke
Likes: cardboard, long sits on the couch, tuna, potted meat, talking (she carries on meowing conversations with us), cockroaches, lizards (especially DjLizards)
Dislikes: hissing sounds, soda, anyone not in the immediate family
Favorite toy: Milk rings

Help Save Our Brina!

Update 12/29/08 10:16 AM:
She's doing very poorly… she is quite weak and kind of shaky. The vet isn't sure if she will make it through the trauma of surgery.

Update 12/30/08 2:00 PM:
She made it through surgery, but she can't even lift her head she's so weak. They found a hairball obstruction as well as the weird object that showed up on her x-ray.

Update 12/31/08 9:00 AM:
She can move a little bit, and has eaten a half can of food! She's in an incubator to keep her warm, bless her heart.

Update 12/31/08 6:00 PM:
She can now keep her own body temperature, but she's not able to move most of her limbs yet. She's doing a bit better. Pray for our Brina!

Update 01/02/08 7:30 PM:
I'm finally home from work and Vanessa has brought home our Brina. She has nasty stitches in her stomach and is shaved in several places (for shots, surgery, etc). She appears weak but becomes incredibly strong whenever you try to feed her or give her medicine! She won't eat on her own yet so we have to force feed her with a syringe.

Update 01/03/08 11:00 AM:
She still doesn't want to eat on her own. You have to shoot food into her mouth with a syringe while holding her down. :(

Update 01/05/08
Vanessa had to take her back to the vet because she was just not being cooperative with regards to eating. She turned yellow again and now she must have a feeding tube inserted in her neck so that she will eat. The vet will take good care of her. We miss our Brina.

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Post tags: cat, Help, kitty, Medical, Sabrina

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A future version of Dial-a-fix will support Internet Explorer 8 by ignoring those unregisterable components.

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Story:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10083081-64.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

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It will support Vista.

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ddrescue is your friend!

While cloning, it was only going 15 to 20 MB/s even on the good parts. I then realized that the -b flag to ddrescue would allow me to force it to go maximum speed. By using -b 4096 it began going 70 to 80 MB/s on the parts of the drive that are working fine.

Don't forget about the good ole data recovery article.

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Post tags: clone, ddrescue, failure, hard drives, hd, hdd

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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.

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

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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!

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(...)
Read the rest of Anti-virus/security software sucks (705 words)

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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.

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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 the rest of Entitled – Notepad (1,271 words)

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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…

(...)
Read the rest of The history of DjLizard – and – Your inflated sense of self-entitlement (0 of 1) (2,841 words)

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(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".)

© DjLizard for DjLizard.net, 2007. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dial-a-fix, Fixes, MSXML, unspecified error

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