diltsman's Xanga

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 03:05:17 GMT

We got Steffanie's other pad today. Check it out. This is them set up for doubles mode. That sure adds a bit more difficulty, but it sure is fun. I realized today that each pad costs about as much as both of Steffanie's other pads, plus the DDR game plus the PS2 we have. That is insane.

Being an engineer I look at these pads and can show you all of the different places that they cut corners. Doesn't mean that it isn't a good pad, just that they could have done a bit more for show.

Some good friends of ours just got a Wii. I'm excited. Hopefully we can play it too some time. The Elder's quorum presidency was here the other day. One of them said that he knew a guy who tore a rotator cuff playing Wii Tenis. Man, that is getting into a video game. He also said he knows a guy who lost like 4 pounds a week. His exercise regimen? Playing the Wii for 30 minutes a day.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 23:33:25 GMT

I ordered Steffanie two Cobalt Flux pads on April 30th. The first one finally came today. I understand that they are the same type of pad as mom's good one. I hope these last a long time. I ordered the doubles pack which has two pads and the bar to connect them for doubles mode. Hopefully the other pad comes tomorrow.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 23:41:42 GMT

Ok, I'm fed up with my new computer. I have literally spent entire days trying to get it to work. Here is how things worked. I have been having trouble with stability, random BSODs and the like. So, I ran Memtest86, which is a bootable CD that is supposed to be a really good memory tester. It passed, no problems. Next, I tried Windows's memory tester. This one failed. So, I look online, and it looks like the memory is recognized with 4-4-4-12 timings, and is supposed to be 5-5-5-15 timings. So, I manually set the memory timings in the BIOS, and then the Windows memory tester passed.

So, because I don't trust software installed with faulty memory, I try to reinstall Windows. Now Windows crashes right during the first boot, so I can't even get INTO Windows.

Now I decide to update my BIOS. The old version was 0602, and the most recent is 1102. So, I get it updated and everything is hunky-dory, right? Wrong. Now Windows crashes during the install, so even that fails. It seems like everything that I do that should fix things causes things to crash even earlier.

So, now I'm REALLY frustrated. I ran Memtest86 again, and, go figure, it now detects lots of memory errors. The only thing that I can guess is that the old BIOS version hid the memory errors some how.

Now to figure out how to determine which memory module is bad. First thing I do is remove one set of RAM. Then I run Memtest86 again. It passes, so I reverse them (so that all of the RAM is tested). It still passes. So, I take that pair of good RAM out and put the other pair in. It passes also, so I reverse it. That passes too. It seems like all of the memory is good, so I put all 4 sticks back in the computer, and Memtest86 detects 3000+ errors.

The only thing that I can figure out is that there is some incompatibility between the RAM I got and the motherboard. I'm sending the RAM back, and going to buy a different brand that is certified to work with the motherboard I have. This means that my new computer is a pretty, useless box for the next two weeks or so.

Steffanie and I went to Tucanos for lunch today. It is a Brazil style buffet. Nice salad bar and a LOT of different types of meat. We mostly ate meat (Steffanie needed the protein). Now, I am proud of the fact that I never loose money at a buffet (Good Dilts upbringing). I am also used to eating way more than Steffanie did. Steffanie ate as much as I did at lunch. I'm proud of her. Definitely signs of being a true Dilts.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 05:13:47 GMT

Dad was very perceptive with that last post. Little did he know that Nathaniel's favorite cord is the USB printer cable. Anyway, more drivers, more instability.

Kind of a weird experience today. Came home, and Windows had crashed and rebooted itself today. I logged on and there was this weird window up that I had never seen before. The flashiest virus ever. Turns out that it is some piece of software by ASUS and is poorly translated and appears to have no actual purpose. Anyway, uninstalled the ASUS utilities and it went away.

I hate to call the code I'm working with at work spaghetti code, because I would hate to insult spaghetti code everywhere. This is more like you took the spaghetti, put it in a blender for 5 seconds, and then put is back. It is horrible. My boss started it. He is a mechanical engineer with some programming experience. Then, the guy who took it over from his did most of it and did some refactoring. His code is better, but still leaves a LOT to be desired. As near as I can tell, it spawns a child thread that does all of the work while the parent thread exits, because someone copied an example they didn't take the time to fully understand. So, I got a book on refactoring today. It is 9 years old, but, from what I saw, it is still THE book on the topic. So, in computer terms it is practically an antique.

Nathaniel just had his first bite of banana. He really liked it. He had no problem trying to get more of it off of mommy's fingers. He even tried to gnaw on it, and probably would have succedded at getting off a chokable piece if Steffanie had let him.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 14:45:48 GMT

Windows Vista is the most unstable Windows since Windows 9x. I literally get a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) at least 2-3 times per day. I almost never got a BSOD with Windows 2000 and Windows XP. I personally think the cause is the new drivers. The driver architecture has been completely overhauled since Windows XP, and I think that the Vista drivers just aren't as stable as the XP drivers. I'm sure this will change over the next couple of months, but for now it leaves Vista extremely (for a modern OS) unstable.

Nathaniel is very cute. He is scooting something fierce. He gets in to stuff and seems to think that computer cables are very tasty. This makes it difficult to keep track of him, but it is definitely a sign that he is growing up.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Sat, 26 May 2007 00:44:30 GMT

I got the parts for my new computer today!!!! I'm so excited. It took a couple of hours to assemble. It is really cool. I got a really good (and heavy) after-market CPU fan. Check out these pictures.

The parts list is here. It is also going to have a 20" wide-screen LCD

Now for the bad news. The RAM didn't come yet!!! I have a useless, pretty box. It should come any day now. Also, I forgot to order the DVD drive, so I have no way to install Windows on it. Anyway, that will all be remedied next week.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 05:01:12 GMT

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 04:10:34 GMT

Being home, alone, and sick is stressful enough, but it is even more stressful when you, your wife, and your baby are all home and sick. Not fun. Seems like I am getting better, at least.

We got the bed unpacked from Nathaniel's room last night, and that is about it. Mostly, his room in impassable.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 04:53:29 GMT

Steffanie and Nathaniel are home, now. It is nice to have them back. I love having them around. Unfortunately, Nathaniel has the stomach flu, Steffanie has a cold and a runny nose, and I'm not feeling very well either. Still, it is nice to have them back. It was a good thing for them to visit my family. Steffanie got a much needed break, and my parents finally got to see their first grandchild. I think it was good for everyone.

It hailed today. It was the size of large peas. I was at work at the time, with a full wall being windows. It was really neat to watch. It hailed for about 5 minutes. Enough came down to coat the roofs of all the surrounding buildings. I have never seen a hail storm before.

Half of the bedroom is now finished being painted. It looks much better, now we have to finish painting the other half, and move everything out of Nathaniel's room.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 03:24:06 GMT

All I did today was paint. Half of the bedroom looks really good. The other half I will have to do tomorrow. I hope I can get everything done in time for Steffanie and Nathaniel getting back.

Our friends, Stephen and Alicia, came and helped me paint, and then fed me dinner. It was very good, and I appreciated the company and help.